Killing Time
by Kaori
Summary: The Where the Hell Are We Now filler arc! The Kejibi and Team 7 have been split up for their own safety. Jiraiya has taken Naruto and Bradley on a journey around the Elemental Nations, Gina has been sent to Sunagakure to live with the Sabaku Siblings, and the remaining members of Team 7 continue on with Kotorra reluctantly sometimes subbing for Naruto. Shenanigans and adventure!
1. Gina and the Sabaku Siblings

Welcome to the second part of Where the Hell Are We Now? appropriately titled Killing Time . Since we never actually got to see what happened during the timeskip (if you follow the manga after the Valley of the End, if you follow the anime after the Seimei Arc) I decided to make shit up.

This arc of the story brought to you prematurely by numerous impatient reviewers. So if it sucks, blame them because I didn't intend to start this part until I finished either Shinobi's Guide 2: Bored Teenagers or Naruto: Ninja Burger Chronicles. Happy New Year, I still love you guys. Except you, Kaede-Bug. You know what you did.

Killing Time  
Chapter One: Gina and the Sabaku Siblings  
By Kaori

Sunagakure, situated in an arid desert with sand and stones serving as both moat and fortification to the people that dwell therein:

She'd arrived a mere fifty-three hours after her big send-off part (Tsunade seemed a little _too_ happy to see her go) and already she was missing the relative paradise of Konohagakure with its lush forests, cool rivers, and moderate climate. Despite the loose-fitting clothing she wore, she still felt as if she was being cooked alive.

"I'm frying…" Gina whined as she lay on the window seat. "Kankuroooo, could you get me some ice water? Please?"

Currently, her only companion was the war-painted Kankuro who definitely did not enjoy her company and told her so every chance he got; and she'd only been there a little over two days. It's not that he hated the girl it was more that she got on every last one of his nerves. It only made things worse for him that Temari and Gaara weren't around to distract her today. They actually think she's funny.

"I'm not your errand boy!" he snarled. "Get it yourself, you know where the refrigerator is, lazy gargoyle girl…"

"You're so mean!" pouted Gina, moving so that she was looking at him upside-down with her feet on the glass. "And who gave you permission to call me a gargoyle? Only Bradley and Kotorra get to call me that, bat boy. Aren't I a guest in your hometown? You should be more hospitable."

"Grrr…I'll call you whatever I want gargoyle girl! Aren't you a guest? Shouldn't you be going out of your way not to cause trouble for your hosts?" Kankuro snapped.

"I only cause you trouble because you give me attitude. Respect your elders, young man!"

"Elders my ass! You're only a few months older than me!"

"You two sound like an old married couple." A voice drawled, tiredly from the door.

"Temaaariiiii!" Gina cried, pouncing on the other girl and knocking her to the floor. "Kankuro's been bullying me! Punish him!"

"Aren't you embarrassed to be acting like that at your age?" Kankuro muttered. The deuce hissed at him like a cat. "Obviously not. Why couldn't we have gotten Kotorra instead of you? At least she doesn't insist on driving me insane!" Gina got a mischievous grin on her face.

"Insane? Insane with lust?" she laughed as Kankuro lunged at her. "No, no! We can't do that here! Not in front of your sister!" the male Suna-nin was livid and she was loving every minute of it. "At least wait until the wedding night!"

"DAMMIT ARE YOU ON DRUGS? IS THAT IT? WHERE ARE YOU KEEPING THEM? I NEED THEM MORE THAN YOU DO!"

Temari sighed as she picked herself up off the floor and excused herself from the room. While she normally enjoyed the fits of rage Gina induced in her brother she was much too tired to fully appreciate it. Her current assignment was patrol duty which meant she spent hours outside in the hot sun staring out at stark desert. She was hot, dirty, tired, and in desperate need of some "Temari Time"; a good soak in the bath seemed like an ideal place to start.

On her way to the baths she was unsurprised to find Gina tied up, gagged and about to be hung out the window by Kankuro. Tired as she was she couldn't resist the urge to say, "Can't you two wait until I'm gone before you start having kinky sex?"

Kankuro's horrified expression would be one of her favourite memories.

At the baths, Temari enjoyed the feeling of the water surrounding her body and the peaceful surroundings. The Sabaku residence boasted six bathrooms, each one with a large sunken tub; being the daughter of a village leader had its perks. Her thoughts sobered at that; her father was dead and apparently had been for months. She shuddered wondering what would have become of her home had the deception not been discovered.

It was clear that Orochimaru had used Sunagakure's misguided anger for his own ends. Temari was only slightly satisfied that he had not succeeded. If he had the sennin would most likely have continued to manipulate the village to further whatever his goal was and then destroy it when he no longer had any use for it.

The sound of the door opening brought her out of her musings. Unconsciously she tensed only relaxing when the person who had entered the bathroom turned out to be Gina.

"Your brother threatened to drown me in the well outside so I figured if I had to get wet I'd join you in the bath and avoid watery death." Shrugged the other girl.

Temari chuckled and said she didn't mind at all. As the mulatto got into the bath, Temari's eyes wandered over her back. "Do those bother you at all?" she asked on impulse.

"Huh?" blinked Gina.

"Those stones in your back." Temari clarified. "Do they hurt?"

"No, well, not anymore at least. When the first column grew in it hurt _a lot_ since they kinda came out all at once. I thought my back was going to split open. The rest grew in slowly but they itched like crazy." She made a face. "Ugh, just thinking about it makes me itchy." She wiggled around a bit, as if trying to scratch her back on the wall of the tub.

Once she'd settled down, Temari spoke again.

"I hope you don't mind me taking advantage of you for a little while."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Gina asked suspiciously. "If it's what I think you mean than I want you to know right now that I don't like girls that way." Temari gave her a look that was half angry half embarrassed. Gina laughed at her. "Oh Lord you should see your face! Tsunade got almost that exact same look on her face when I said that to her!" Temari frowned.

"You implied that the Godaime Hokage is a lesbian, to her face no less, and you're _not_ lying in a smoking hole in the ground?"

"She wasn't the Hokage at the time, but yes." Gina giggled. Temari shook her head and laughed.

"You're insane!"

"So they tell me."

"Anyway, what I meant was if you didn't mind me taking advantage of having another girl around." Temari said. "I don't have any sisters and I rarely get to hang out with other kunoichi, so I hardly ever get to do anything remotely girly."

"Do I get to play with your hair?"

"As long as you don't do anything weird or permanent."

"Sister, considering half the crap I've seen you're going to have to be very specific about what you think of as weird."

An hour later, Kankuro was wondering why it was so quiet. Surely the two of them must have finished in the bath by now. Feeling a little anxious that they might be plotting something he went looking for them. After checking everywhere else he crept up to the door of Gina's room; giggling was emanating from the other side. Now certain that he had caught them in the act of plotting something devious he flung the door open…

…only to be met with the sight of Gina, dressed in a bathrobe with a towel on wrapped around her still wet hair, giving Temari a Flock of Seagulls hairstyle.

"Don't you knock?" shrieked the makeshift stylist and threw a comb at him. Then she stomped over, picked up the comb, and slammed the door in his gawking face.

Kankuro blinked stupidly at the closed portal for a moment before letting out an annoyed growl and stalking to his room. The immature girl was not his problem at the moment, he could care less what she and his sister did, and he was going to bed. Tomorrow was probably going to be filled with just as much aggravation.


	2. Two and a Half Humans

Killing Time  
Chapter Two: Two and a Half Humans  
By Kaori

If he was going to be perfectly honest with himself Jiraiya hadn't wanted Bradley along with them. After all, the dog hybrid was no shinobi, openly sabotaged his "research" whenever he felt Naruto was being neglected because of it, and was more popular with the ladies (curse him for his "cute and exotic" looks, gentleman-like manners, and ability to transform into a cute puppy). But circumstances had not worked out the way he desired but he was finding that it wasn't all bad. Especially after learning how damned useful the older boy actually was.

The most immediate thing was that Bradley could cook. While nowhere near as talented as Kotorra, hanging around the gastronomic genius for so long had rubbed off on him. You could not spend a significant amount of time with the girl and not pick up _something_ as Naruto had also apparently benefitted from the girl's presence (demonstrated when Bradley let him make pancakes one morning) and, according to him, Sasuke makes a mean omelet.

The second thing: Bradley's senses of smell and hearing are as good if not better than any ninken and he remembered every scent he'd come across like it was yesterday. Seeing as how he'd already met Itachi and Kisame, he'd most likely smell them coming a mile away. More to the point, unfamiliar scents had him on high alert while in new places, especially when he wasn't expecting company. Bradley had almost bit the leg off the courier ninja when he'd come to pick up Jiraiya's latest manuscript for the publishers.

Unfortunately, Bradley is completely incapable of dealing with anyone who fights above chuunin level without assistance so if the teen was going to keep himself safe (never mind Naruto) he was going to have to go through some sort of training.

Thankfully, Naruto is mostly in the same boat so the sennin decided training them jointly in taijutsu would be beneficial all around. Jiraiya fully expected Naruto to be able to out-muscle the older boy eventually, but for the time being Bradley would act as a measuring stick of sorts. During the jinchuriki's ninjutsu and genjutsu lessons, Bradley would continue practicing taijutsu, run errands for Jiraiya, observe Naruto's training, or explore the area in a canine form.

They were currently travelling in the general direction of Takigakure taking a seemingly meandering route to get there; however the village was not their destination. They would avoid hidden villages for the first year as it would make them that much harder to track. Instead they'd stop in cities to resupply (small town folk tended to remember visitors much more readily) and rough it at other times.

Tonight they were camping out in the woods near a stream and Bradley decided he was going to take a bath before going to sleep in his tent. The water was cold but in his mind being cold for a little while was better than smelling like he'd rolled in a football team's sweaty jerseys before jumping naked into a garbage bin.

He stripped down to his boxer shorts and hung his clothes on a nearby bush to wash afterwards. Practically jumped into the frigid water, he barely suppressed a hiss as he was submerged in cold.

Eventually he got used to the sensation and proceeded to clean himself. It was at this moment that Jiraiya came over.

"I hope you haven't taken to watching young men bathe Jiraiya, otherwise I may be forced to maul you." Bradley commented dryly.

"Feh." Snorted Jiraiya, taking a seat on a nearby boulder. "You are most definitely not big-chested and covered in nubile hunny flesh. Anyway, this was the only way I could speak to you without Naruto overhearing." The young man cocked his head to the side in a manner identical to the dogs he frequently transformed into. "What I mean to say is that I don't think you're fully aware of the kind of danger you're in while travelling with us. The Akatsuki are dangerous organization of S-class missing nin who are after Naruto and people like him."

"Jinchuriki you mean." Bradley said flatly, internally pleased with the horrified look on Jiraiya's face. "And as for how I know, you and Tsunade told me. Well, me and Gina." Jiraiya frowned.

"I never told you about that."

"No, but you and Tsunade did discuss it in that garden where you thought no one could hear you but you never bothered to physically check the area for eavesdroppers did you? You guys are so used to sensing for chakra you forget that my friends and I don't generate it. And before you decide to kill me, Gina and I only told Kotorra. Naruto doesn't even know that we know and if you me you'll have to explain yourself and why you killed one of the few friends he has."

Jiraiya openly showed his consternation. By all rights he could kill this boy right now but it's bad form to kill someone you swore to protect, not to mention the fact that even though Bradley knows the secret he doesn't seem to care. Hell the boy is friends with Sabaku no Gaara, a jinchuriki who had a reputation for extreme emotional instability; if he could look passed that then Naruto had nothing to fear from him.

That doesn't mean he has to like it.

"You've got a lot of nerve spying on two sennin." He ground out. At that Bradley gave a mocking snort.

"Oh like you haven't spied on us before? And before you answer that let me remind you that no amount of ninjutsu, genjutsu, or cheap cologne is going to change what you smell like."

"That's different."

"How so?"

"What I do is for the good of the village. One must know their allies just as well if not better than one knows one's enemies."

"Then we're not so different then. We were taught that it's what you don't know that gets you killed. Keeping ourselves informed keeps us from blundering into people like Orochimaru and the Akatsuki and making decisions that gets us and other people in serious problems."

Jiraiya sighed loudly.

"All right, I concede your point, and since I was about to tell you about Naruto's condition anyway I suppose it makes no real difference. But I don't think we should tell Naruto how you found out about him. I'll talk to him and tell him that you know, but we'll just keep it between ourselves that you found out by spying on me and Tsunade."

Bradley nodded in agreement. Then scowled.

"Are we done now? This water's freezing and I hear my nice warm sleeping bag calling me."

When Bradley came back to the campfire Naruto gave him a look of trepidation. Having a fair idea of what the younger boy was thinking, he pointedly walked towards him making sure not to lose eye contact. He let Naruto have the first word.

"So you know?" asked the blonde.

"Yeah." Bradley replied evenly.

"And you don't…hate me?"

"Should I? I mean, what could you possibly have done that would call for me hating you?"

"So you don't think I'm a monster?"

"Yes, of the ramen eating variety." Naruto looked like he was going to yell at him but Bradley interrupted before he could get started. "Look, I don't know the Kyuubi, I've never seen the Kyuubi, and I wasn't here when it destroyed the village. I do know you. You are my friend Naruto; the demon inside you doesn't change that. Besides, if I stopped being your friend because of that I'd have to stop being friends with Gaara too. That goes double for Gina and Kotorra."

Naruto beamed at him like a sunrise before bowling him over in a tackling hug. "Thank you." He mumbled into the older boy's shirt. Bradley patted him on the head in response. Jiraiya coughed, effectively spoiling the moment.

"If you're done adding to the sap in the forest I suggest you get some sleep. We've got a long journey ahead of us and I don't need you two whining about being tired."


	3. The Bell Test Again

Killing Time  
Chapter Three: The Bell Test…Again  
By Kaori

She never agreed to being kidnapped while she was sleeping in the wee hours of the morning to take part in a team building exercise. And she certainly hadn't agreed to being dragged from her nice warm bed at the ass-crack of dawn and not being permitted a hot bath and a meal. Yet here she was at six a.m., not even shower or breakfast with her hair a fluffy mess, barefoot and tied to a tree in some training ground she probably wouldn't have gone near otherwise. Thank goodness she had fallen asleep in her clothes last night or she'd be out here in her pajamas. Someone was going to suffer for this indignity. Specifically that someone she and her two kidnappers were waiting for.

Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke had been ordered by one Hatake Kakashi to bring Kotorra Lewis to the training grounds for a team building exercise. Kotorra herself had not been informed of this nor did it cross Kakashi's mind that it might be a good idea to ask his contracted mercenary whether or not this was part of their contract. If Sasuke and Sakura weren't ninjas, it was quite possible they would've been severely injured when they went to collect their third member. Luckily their training is more than enough to handle one irate half-asleep mercenary.

To Kotorra's credit, Sakura is missing a significant clump of hair and Sasuke has several bite marks up his left arm. She had been tied to a tree to prevent further violence on to persons from her.

Kakashi came strolling into the clearing a good two hours late, much to everyone else's chagrin.

"You must not like your life, Hatake Kakashi." Glared Kotorra. Kakashi eye smiled at her.

"And good morning to you, too!" he said cheerily. "Well, since we're all here we can begin." He took out a single bell. "You three have until noon to get this bell away from me. If you fail, you buy me lunch."

"What do we get if we do get the bell?" Sakura asked.

"Hmm…I'll let you decide. Ready?"

"No!" Kotorra protested. "Untie me first you psychos!"

Once the Wild Card had been released from her bonds she, Sasuke, and Sakura made themselves scarce.

"All right, Naruto told me about this bell test of yours. It's basically a test of The Power of Friendship right?" Kotorra muttered.

"Teamwork." Sasuke corrected.

"Exactly, and since anyone with half the sense the Creator gave them knows experience beats The Power of Friendship in these situations, we will need to fight dirty."

"I don't know…" Sakura said, trying to come up with an objection that didn't start out sounding like an insult. The other girl was ticked off enough. Unfortunately her objection was enough for Kotorra to fix a nasty glare in her direction.

"It's that or I can do what I planned to you guys instead." The two genin looked at each other, then at the dangerously serious expression on Kotorra's face. "Just remember, your sensei isn't permitted to do anything to you that would prevent you from performing your duties. I on the other hand have no such compunction."

"The Hokage would have you arrested." Sasuke pointed out.

"I can be in Sunagakure before she even finds out. Hell, I can disappear from this world completely if I wanted to."

"Prove it."

"Do as I say and you'll have all the proof you need."

"Deal."

Kakashi had hoped they'd attack him immediately but it seemed that since they had a far less impulsive person on their team that wasn't going to happen. Ah well, whatever plan they'd come up with should prove to be interesting. A sudden feeling of dread to his left broke him from his musing.

Kotorra was standing out in the open looking for the entire world like she'd been there the whole time. She waved at him jauntily at him and then disappeared. Kakashi moved out of the way just in time to avoid the girl axe kicking him in the head. How she managed to get that high in the air he did not have time to ponder, as Sasuke was suddenly attacking him.

While the jounin was preoccupied, Sakura was in a nearby tree preparing her genjutsu. Kotorra hadn't explained what exactly she was going to do after Kakashi was caught in it, but it was vitally important that the genin did not mess up. They were only going to get one shot at this. And, truth be told, she was very pleased at the opportunity to turn her sensei's trick against him. She just had to wait for the right moment…!

Suddenly the wind picked up. Perfect.

Leaves suddenly blew around Kakashi, obscuring his vision enough for Sasuke to deliver a hard blow to his stomach. He moved to the side and was shocked to see a kunai whiz passed him only to stab Sasuke in the chest. His heart lurched and he immediately ran to his fallen student. Before he could reach him, things suddenly went black.

When next he was aware of himself, he could hear people laughing. He blinked and looked in his hand; there was a very worn down piece of chalk. Puzzled, he looked ahead to see that he was standing in front of a blackboard. A sudden draft made him realize that he was only wearing his mask and underwear.

The laughter was suddenly very loud in his ears. Kakashi turned around slowly.

He was in the academy classroom. Iruka, Kurenai, Asuma, Gai and their teams, were sitting in the chairs laughing so hard they were having trouble breathing. Sakura and Sasuke were standing next to Iruka's desk and Kotorra was sitting behind it with her feet propped up, tossing a bell up and down in her left hand and fingering an odd device in her right. Embarrassed as all get out but still rather curious he regarded his team.

"And just how long has this been going on?" he asked.

"It's two o' clock in the afternoon." Kotorra said frankly. It was then he noticed that she was wearing clean clothes and her hair was done up in a severe bun instead of loose. "I made you draw my bath and buy us lunch before making you strip down to your underwear and parading you up and down the village declaring yourself a shameless pervert. Then we came here with the audience we gathered and you've been writing lines for the last forty-five minutes."

Kakashi turned to see exactly what it was he had been writing all that time.''

On the blackboard, in his own handwriting were the words: I will not fuck with Kotorra Lewis. He turned back to look at the Wild Card.

"I trust," she said, icily. "that you won't be trying that crap on me again?"

Once the room had been cleared of spectators and Kakashi had been given his clothes back Kotorra explained to him what they'd done.

The whole plan was nothing more than a series of distractions. Kotorra was the initial distraction for Sasuke since she knew she didn't have any chance with the jounin in a straight up fight. Sasuke, could at least keep Kakashi busy long enough for Sakura to prepare and use Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu; the very same jutsu that was used on Sakura during their first bell test. This would keep Kakashi occupied so Kotorra could use her Somnambulum on him.

"And what," Kakashi asked. "is a Somnambulum?"

Kotorra deftly removed a button-sized device from the back of Kakashi's neck; it resembled a butterfly. "This is a Somnambulum. It's usually only used on sleeping people but it seems to work just as well on people under the influence of genjutsu. For the last two hours you've been, for lack of a better definition, sleepwalking awake. I've been using this," she held up the device she'd been playing with; a stylized microphone. "to influence your actions. I could have kept this up for another eight hours but that would have been cruel."

"All of this just because I woke you up early?"

"I never agreed to _be_ your student Kakashi, I'm only standing in. If you need me to be somewhere at least have the decency to _tell_ me instead of hauling me out of bed like a convict. If you insist on doing stuff like that you'd better damn well kill me afterwards; shit like that's for ninja I'm a Wild Card."

"I'll admit my methodology may have lacked a certain amount of tact on my part, but I merely wanted to test how well you three would work together; which is rather effectively I'd say. By the way, how did you keep disappearing like that? I didn't even sense it." Kotorra grinned at him, reached into her shirt and pulled up the necklace she was wearing.

"I can go anywhere I can remember with this." She stated. "I just pictured myself about two feet above your head, which would have been funny as hell if I'd actually managed to hit you but that wasn't the idea. My martial skills aren't at your level, but I can set up a decent ambush given enough time to work. Suits me just fine, I'm not overly fond of killing people. Don't get me wrong I understand that sometimes there's no other option, but I feel living hell is the best revenge."

"I see." Kakashi nodded. "Well, since you passed the test, and have apparently already eaten lunch, I suppose you are dismissed for the day." And with that, he disappeared.

Sometime later, the Hokage listened while Kakashi gave his report. She mulled it over for a moment then turned to look out the window.

"You realize, that if that had been an actual battle and they were more experienced any one of them could have taken the opportunity to kill you." Tsunade stated.

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Nodded Kakashi. "Lewis-san's little device has some horrifying assassination applications. It could…" Whatever he was going to say next was cut off by a derisive snort.

"She'd never let us have such a thing. You heard her, she dislikes killing. She understands the necessity of it and won't hesitate to defend herself, but she's the type that won't give you a sword if you've got two good kunai already." She sighed. "Shame, she would've made a hell of an assassin the way she thinks."

"I'm almost glad she's not." The masked man said blandly. "She's terrifying enough as a negotiator."

"And expensive."

Completely ignorant of that she was being discussed Kotorra was in the basement of her house with Faust checking her surveillance system.

She'd set it up a week after they'd first moved in as a means to discover just who the hell was spying on her friends and herself and so far the only thing she'd learned is that they were ANBU of some sort.

ANBU spying on them was nothing new but this particular group had violated the sanctity of her home. Thankfully they were unable to get in the basement or the roof from inside thanks to the strange chakra absorbing doors; and while they did get up to the roof via climbing up the outer walls there was nothing up there that would interest anybody but a decorator or an arborist.

Frowning, she rewound the most recent footage trying to see if she could spot some sort of clue as to the identity of her unwanted visitors. Sadly, none was forthcoming and she decided to give it up for more pleasant pursuits. Mainly, examining the data from the Somnambulum.

She'd neglected to tell Kakashi that she had (like just about everything she makes nowadays) modified it so that it recorded the type and frequency of the energy flow of his body. Kotorra was not giving up on her artificially generated chakra idea, and since she can't create it on her own she was going to study the ninja around her. She seriously doubted she'd be able to use the Somnambulum on any of the members of Team 7 again, and using it on anyone else without permission would get her in trouble therefore, she would need a way of detecting and seeing it herself.

So, phase one was to understand how this type of energy manifests by studying her new data.

"I just wish there was someone else here to bounce ideas off of." She muttered.

"Raak!" squawked Faust.

"I meant one that understands biophysics and quantum mechanics (1)."

* * *

1) For the record, I have a very low understanding of both subjects and fully intend to make stuff up based on what I _do_ know, and steal the rest from scifi books, movies, and video games.


	4. In Which Gaara and Gina Play in the Sand

Bork bork bork!

Killing Time  
Chapter Four: In which Gaara and Gina Play in the Sand  
By Kaori

Once again Gina was bored. All three of the Sabaku siblings were out and she had been left to her own devices since breakfast. For a few moments, she had childishly contemplated TPing Kankuro's room but thought better of it. She had attempted to read some of the scrolls lying around the house but soon gave up as her BorgFish Wired only allowed her to understand spoken language not written, and she never learned to read Japanese. In an attempt to do something constructive, she wrote a letter to Kotorra.

"Dear Kotorra,

Bored out of my mind so I thought I'd write you a week early with a status report on my situation here.

Kankuro hates me, Temari's fun to hang out with, and Gaara seems to be amused by my presence but I can't be certain.

Have you been on any missions yet? They don't let me go on any. Half the council in Suna still doesn't trust Konoha (called me a spy, which I am but it's not like I'm spying on them…yet) and the other half think I'll just be in the way. Ha! Me in the way! Could you imagine? Don't answer that.

Anyway, how are things back in Konoha? Is Asshat behaving himself? Are you remembering to feed Faust? Maybe you should make him a voice synthesizer so you can actually understand what he's saying while Bradley's gone. Heck, you should even make him a tiny BorgFish so he can understand you when you start cursing him in seventy-six different languages.

Oh, do you think you can tweak our BorgFishes so that we can read languages too? I know _you_ can read Japanese just fine, but I never learned it. Not sure about Bradley, maybe I should ask him. I just think it might come in handy.

Since I've run out of stuff to tell an ask you I guess I'll leave off here. Until next time.

Gina"

After checking her coding and making sure she didn't put in anything that could be mistranslated, she put the letter in an envelope and then placed it into the mailbox outside. Task completed, she found herself bored once again.

"Bah, may as well go out, nothing to do here after all."

Gaara had finished his training in the desert and was on his way home when a distant rumbling to the south caught his attention. Worried that it might be enemies, he cautiously made his way over the dunes to investigate. He needn't have worried.

Wearing a floppy hat and a sundress Gina looked like she was just enjoying a day at the beach; a veritable menagerie of sand sculptures surrounded her and she was currently finishing a rhinoceros. The illusion was only spoiled by the knowledge that the ocean was thousands of miles away. The rumbling noise he'd heard was explained when the mulatto used her powers to pull up the bedrock and loosen the sand. Gaara stepped between the sand kangaroo and penguin and cleared his throat.

"Hi Gaara!" chirped Gina. "Fancy running into you out here!"

"What are you doing?" Gaara asked. Gina rolled her eyes.

"What? No "good afternoon" or even "yes this is a rather funny coincidence"? Sheesh, kids these days got no manners I swear…" Gaara simply stared at her, waiting for an answer to his question. She sighed. Teaching Gaara the art of small talk wasn't going to be easy but she was going to try anyway; it's not like she had anything important to do. "Well, I'm making sand sculptures as you can see."

"Why?"

/All the subtlety of a jackhammer this one./ "I got bored sitting around the house. It's not like I have anything better to do." She waved to her handiwork. "So I decided to come out here and make sand sculptures. It passes the time and it'll give the guards on the wall something more interesting than plain sand to look at."

"You shouldn't do that. The sculptures will make it easier for someone to approach the village."

"Unlikely. We're only a quarter mile out from the outpost. If someone manages to get this close without being seen then it's already too late." Gina countered. Gaara had to concede that she had a good point. He turned to look at the rest of the sculptures as the young wild card started on another one.

There were six sculptures in total: giraffe, penguin, rhinoceros, whale, gorilla, and a bear. The detail was quite good, almost lifelike. Gina had some talent.

"Where did you learn to do this?" he asked after a while. Gina didn't turn around lest she make a mistake in her sculpting.

"From my dad; art and music runs in my family. My parents and my sisters all had their talents, I happen to be very good at sculpture and pottery. I'm also a pretty good dancer by the way, probably got that from my mother. Can't sing worth a damn though..." she trailed off. "Ah, I'm rambling. You probably don't want to hear about all that." Gaara actually did but wasn't sure how to ask. "Anyway, we used to go the beach all the time and make these gigantic statues out of sand. Of course, when my wild card activated I'd turn the best ones into stone and we'd hawk 'em to people on the beach." Gaara nodded, trying to imagine going to the beach with Temari and Kankuro.

"Can you teach me?" he asked quietly.

When Gina and Gaara came home that evening, the former grinning like an idiot and the latter giving off the air of a pleased cat, Kankuro and Temari were worried. They could be reasonably certain that Gaara hadn't killed anyone as the older girl probably wasn't into murdering people and would have caused an uproar if he tried it, but they had obviously been up to some kind of mischief. Unfortunately exactly what that mischief involved wouldn't become clear until later that night when the ANBU came by to demand they demolish the monster shrine.

"We don't care how or why you did it, but please remove it. The guards won't stop laughing." One of them said.

From the ramparts of the village, the Monster Shrine (as a few of the guards had started calling it) was fully visible sitting alongside the comparatively diminutive sand menagerie Gina had worked on earlier. There was what could only be described as a sand castle roughly the size of a cabin but that wasn't what was causing the mirth from the guard detail. No, it was what was in front of it that was the cause of the amusement.

There was a two storey statue of La Gargouille (1) facing off against an equally sized Shukakku and between them sat an oversized Shinto shrine with a sacrificial altar. On the altar, looking completely terrified, lay the sculpted likeness of Kankuro. Sacrificing him to the beasts, a statue of Temari inexplicably dressed like a Spanish Inquisitor (when Gaara asked about it earlier, Gina simply replied that nobody would expect it), appeared to be conducting the sacrifice.

"STOP BOWING DOWN TO IT AND DESTROY IT ALREADY!" fumed Kankuro, not amused in the slightest. Temari was stifling her laughter by biting her fist. Gina got up from where she was "worshiping the gods" to grin at Kankuro.

"Well, there's a little problem with that. While it may seem easy to destroy such wonderful works of art I don't have any way of doing that very quickly. Our friends here would probably like this done fast, so…"

"So?"

"So I need your help, unless of course you _want_ the rest of the village to see this."

Not surprisingly, the noise from the demolition drew more of a crowd than the quiet snickering of the guard detail. A few hundred people had managed to get a glimpse of the sacrificial Kankuro before the genuine article finally had enough and blew it up with exploding tags. It had taken hours to create it, but it was destroyed in less than ten minutes; a gigantic mound of sand the only indication that any of it had been there. Job completed, the quartet went home to dinner. Gaara walked between Temari and Gina with Kankuro glowering while bringing up the rear.

"Are you upset?" Gaara asked Gina.

"What? About the sand statues?" the girl blinked. Gaara nodded. "Nothing lasts forever, not even stones. The wind would've eventually blown the sand apart, or somebody would decide to knock it down on their own. Heck, knocking it down is part of the fun!"

"So if we were to do it again tomorrow…"

"Why Gaara are you asking me out?" leered Gina. And to the amazement of Temari and Kankuro, Gaara actually looked flustered. Kankuro had to admit that the embarrassment he'd suffered was worth it to see his normally stoic little brother with such an expression of consternation on his face. "If you are I don't mind, but if you're not we can still hang out."

"Just so long as you two keep me out of your little art projects." Kankuro glared.

"I don't know, I think they captured your essence perfectly." Temari said mockingly. Kankuro growled at her. "Oh relax would you, I was joking! Quit taking everything so personally!"

"I tend to take people ridiculing me very personally."

"And when you react like that it makes it very easy to ridicule you." Gina airily put in. "If you get riled up this easily just from a little statue I'd hate to see how you react to someone making attempts on your life."

"Do you want to find out?" Kankuro's voice was low and cold and Gina knew it was time to stop. She may be a little on the manic side but she wasn't stupid no matter what anybody else might think.

"Rocks no! Getting into a pointless brawl with you is just asking for another fight between Suna and Konoha. Kotorra _will_ make me wish I'd let you kill me if I ruin all the hard work she and Sandaime-sama put in just getting you lot back on speaking terms!"

_Picking on Kankuro is fun!_

1) Look up the Legend of La Gargouille for a description if you are unfamiliar with it.


	5. Blessings from Dog

Killing Time  
Chapter Five: Blessings from Dog  
By Kaori

They'd made it to their intended destination with only a few minor problems along the way. To avoid being overly recognizable as shinobi, Jiraiya and Naruto were currently disguised as a travelling monk and his disciple. Since a young man who happens to be half dog is incredibly memorable, Bradley assumed the form of a Welsh corgi. Unfortunately this caused a slight problem when they had to book a room at the only inn they could afford to stay in…

"We don't allow pets." The concierge said in a clipped tone, tapping her long fingers on the counter in a bored fashion. "If you wanna stay here he's gonna have to sleep outside." Jiraiya didn't miss a beat.

"My dear young lady this is no pet, to even suggest such a thing is the highest sacrilege." He bowed to Bradley, who cocked his head to the side. "However my Lord, Shigure-sama (1) is merciful and shall forgive you as you are obviously ignorant of his divine status."

"That dog? A god?" the girl deadpanned.

"No not a god. He is a powerful guardian spirit."

"Yeah right. Next you'll be telling me that kid there is a half-god."

"Don't be absurd, he is merely another disciple of the esteemed guardian. We are accompanying him on his journey to visit the temples and bestow his blessings. "

While Jiraiya tried to convince the girl of his divinity, Bradley (AKA Shigure-sama) decided to make a miracle on his own. Moving around to his rucksack (that Naruto had been carrying) he rifled through it with his nose until he found the little drawstring pouch Inuzuka Hana had given him before he left Konoha. Deftly opening the sack with his teeth, he scraped out two gold coins and gingerly picked them up in his mouth. He leapt up onto the counter and carefully placed the coins in front of the concierge. After a moment of the young woman staring at the coins in surprise Jiraiya said, "His Holiness will gladly compensate you for any inconvenience this might cause."

"I…I'd have to talk to the owner." The girl stammered.

The owner was more than willing to waive his no pet policy seeing as how Shigure-sama was apparently not a pet and more than capable of paying for his own room and then some. To avoid unnecessary questions, Naruto and Bradley were sharing a room. Once they'd gotten comfortable and were certain no one was spying on them, Bradley took his normal form and flopped onto the bed. "That was a close one, I don't know where I was going to sleep if we couldn't convince that woman that I am a guardian spirit." Naruto chewed the inside of his cheek.

"I feel kind of bad about lying to that lady…" he said. Bradley gave him a serious look.

"We can't avoid civilization for three years Naruto, it would be counterproductive. If we have to lie to people to get a roof over our heads then so be it." Seeing the younger boy's sour look he pressed on. "And if you think about it tricking these people is the only way to keep them safe. The Akatsuki are out there looking for Jiraiya of the Sannin and Naruto Uzumaki, not a monk, an initiate, and a dog who may or may not be a divine being. You commit little evils to prevent greater ones."

"I suppose so."

"Hmm. Come on, let's go find Jiraiya and see if we can't get him to buy us dinner."

Word had gotten around rather quickly that there was a powerful guardian spirit visiting the town; it was a large textile production town and since the only thing to do while making cloth is gossip, juicy rumors travel twice as quickly. People were waiting outside the inn hoping to receive blessings from the holy one. Immediately upon catching sight of Shigure-sama and his escorts, the crowd surged forward clamoring and beseeching that "The Most Excellent One" grant his blessings to them. Thankfully Jiraiya had a speech prepared for just such an eventuality.

"Good people, we are very tired and hungry from our long journey and are in need of sustenance and rest. Please, allow us some time for reprieve and meditation; tomorrow Shigure-sama will be most happy to bestow his blessings to you."

Once they were well out of earshot, Naruto let out the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. "That was way to close Ero-sennin! What did you tell them that last bit for? They'll just come looking for us tomorrow! What'll we do then?"

"Calm down. All we have to do is have Bradley touch their hands with his nose or something, spout some mystical-sounding nonsense and they'll be satisfied."

"But what if they ask to be healed or something?"

"We explain that it is not for the guardian to heal, but the will of the gods. He can only bestow blessings and chase out demons."

"This is bad, we're going to be cursed I just know it…" Naruto moaned. Bradley rolled his eyes and mentally thanked all deities that dogs don't have to participate in inane conversations.

When they arrived at the restaurant the owner was waiting for them eagerly. She greeted them with much enthusiasm and ushered them towards the best table. Much to Naruto's annoyance, in order to keep up the charade Jiraiya all the food Jiraiya ordered for them consisted mostly of vegetables and fish; Bradley, was forced to make do with a bowl of milk. The meal was consumed in awkward silence as they were being stared at by everyone else in the establishment.

Bradley had finished eating his very unsatisfying supper before Jiraiya and Naruto, so he contented himself with observing the gawkers. Most looked away when he looked over in their direction, or suddenly found their utensils extremely fascinating. One table caught his attention; there was a family seated there and he suddenly felt a little wistful. It was scenes like that which reminded him that he'd never see his baby cousin or aunt again.

He shook his head; thinking like that was unproductive and depressing. As if sensing his unhappiness, Naruto reached down and patted him on the head. Bradley scowled at him; only girls and little kids were allowed to do that. The blonde just grinned cheekily at him and went back to his meal.

Jiraiya paid for everything this time and the trio promptly returned to the inn and, after enduring the fawning of the inn's owner, retired to bed.

In the morning, as Naruto had predicted, the crowd of people were back beseeching the "guardian" for blessings. Seeing that they would get no peace of mind until they obliged, the trio asked that those wishing to receive blessings meet them at the town square in two hours' time. Unfortunately this meant that half the town was there when they arrived. Since there was no alternative but to go through with it, Jiraiya asked the people to form a single line.

An hour into it and Bradley was losing his patience. His blessing consisted of him sniffing the person's hand to "determine their worthiness" and then pressing his nose on those who he deemed in need of a blessing. Most of the hands he'd sniffed smelled like the dyes used in the textile factories (one in particular smelled heavily of madder (2) and gave him a sneezing fit), and a few smelled like hemp and he surmised that these people were the rope-makers.

They continued the charade for another hour before Jiraiya proclaimed that "the guardian requires rest, but will be happy to continue granting blessings tomorrow. For now, please leave us to our mediation." Once the crowd had completely dispersed and they made their way out of town and, after checking to makes certain that they hadn't been followed, assumed their normal forms.

"All right," Jiraiya began. "today I want Naruto to concentrate on his chakra control so you're going to be working on your taijutsu while in your half transformation."

"Eh, who told you about that?" Bradley blinked.

"Sarutobi-sensei told me about that trip to Suna you all took. I must say I'm impressed you managed to get the drop on two jounin."

"To be fair, I took them both by surprise and the second one had been incapacitated (3). I most likely wouldn't have gotten anywhere near them if I generated chakra."

"The fact that neither of them even saw you approaching until it was too late is still rather telling." Jiraiya persisted. "In that half transformation of yours you move fast enough that a jounin can't see you. You're the only non-shinobi I know capable of doing that, which is why we need to train you to take proper advantage of it."

"There's still one problem with your plan." Bradley pointed out. "I still have trouble achieving that state consciously." Jiraiya's face became a visage of wickedness.

"Well then, we'll just have to do something about that won't we?"

* * *

1) I was going to have Jiraiya call him Ein, but I didn't think it would be suitable. Besides, Shigure from Fruits Basket is awesome.

2) A type of plant used to make red dye for clothing.

3) See Where the Hell are We Now chapters 25 and 26 for a reminder.


	6. Diary of a Mad Scientist

The world has lost another great one: RIP Satoshi Kon.

Killing Time  
Chapter Six: Diary of a Mad Scientist  
By Kaori

She'd gotten into the habit of getting up before Sasuke to practice shooting in the woods surrounding the house. Some might say that this was a colossal waste of time seeing as how she was in a village full of ninja but those individuals would be incredibly stupid. Relying on other people for protection made you vulnerable and an easy target; a person could very easily get separated from their bodyguards or even hit by projectile weapons or other ranged attacks. Her first encounter with Orochimaru had more than proved that point and she still could not remember how she had managed to shield herself. Her martial skills were limited and focused mainly on being able to escape from someone's grasp and run away and she held no allusions that she could match a shinobi in a melee fight. Weapons were her best option until she could get her hand-to-hand skills up to scratch.

Using the memory of a Baretta 92 Vertec her uncle had owned, the schematics for the Takisian psi-guns her teacher always wanted and she had what was essentially a teke blaster. However, she didn't want to rely solely on her teke as ammunition so the gun retained the magazine chamber but she would load those with special dart cartridges instead of bullets. A bullet in a non-lethal place will only cause your opponent inconvenience and you may not get a second shot. Tranquilizers or poisoned darts in the same place would be cause for more immediate problems and give her a better chance of dispatching a foe.

When target practice was over, it was time to plot how she was going to run tests on her guinea pigs/friends. Some days it was exceedingly difficult, but today the opportunity had handed itself to her in the form of a group training exercise with Team 8 and Ino and Chouji. Kakashi had actually approached her with the plan for the activity and it was all she could do to appear indifferent about it. His proposal actually sped up her research quite a bit…

"All right, today we're going to be working on your chakra control and stamina." Kurenai stated. "Kotorra-kun(1) has been kind enough to provide us with the tools we'll be using." Kotorra approached the group with a briefcase that she opened with a flourish, revealing seven white spheres about the size of baseballs.

"Bask in the glory of my balls!" Kotorra declared, grinning like a lunatic. This got a laugh out of Kiba, Chouji and the jounins, a brief (and quickly hidden) smirk from Sasuke, and looks of disapproval from Sakura and Ino. "I call them chakra levitation balls or ChakLev Balls for short. These are designed to levitate when you apply chakra to the palm of your hand. What you'll be doing is keeping the ball two inches above your palm for exactly thirty minutes before tossing it into the air with a burst of chakra and catching it at the same height with your other hand."

"What's the catch?" Sasuke glared.

"Why Sasuke, would I _ever_ do _anything_ untoward to you guys?" she bat her eyes in a completely exaggerated manner.

"The catch?" the Uchiha repeated. Kotorra grinned sharkishly.

"These things have timers, an energy absorption unit, and a special type of altimeter." Seeing the blank stares from the genin she explained that an altimeter measures how high up something is. "The minute you apply chakra to the ChakLev the timer will start. If you drop that ball before time is up your own chakra is going to come exploding back in your face. If that ball goes to high, the chakra is going to explode back in your face. If you attempt to kill me while doing this exercise…"

"The chakra will explode in our faces." Shino stated.

"Ah, young grasshoppa learn quick. I should tell you that you will get a ten second warning before it explodes, plenty of time to correct your behavior. Now, get over here and grab my balls so we can get started."

What she didn't tell Kakashi or anyone else was the chakra absorption unit was also a monitoring device that was recording data on the output of chakra being poured into it, the chakra's composition, and any fluctuations that occurred during the experiment. Later on she'd compare each ball's data to the initial data she'd collected from Kakashi while making the devices. In the meantime, she'd amuse herself by doing a running commentary.

"The subjects are showing a reluctance to begin the exercise." She stated clinically. "If I had been made aware that I was to be monitoring chickens I would have brought some corn to coax them into cooperating." This got her glares from her unwitting test subjects and amused looks from the jounin. "Ah, the subjects are reacting negatively. Perhaps they object to my comparing them to poultry?"

"You're damn right we do!" yelled Ino. Kotorra imperiously raised an eyebrow.

"Bawk bawk bawk."

"Why you…"

"I have confirmation of objection from Female Subject Two. Oh, it appears Male Subjects One and Two have begun the exercise." The other genin looked over to see that Sasuke and Shino were indeed attempting the challenge and doing well so far. The others decided to stop complaining and get to work. With the genin suitably distracted, Asuma sidled over to Kotorra.

"Those things won't really explode, will they?" he asked.

"Of course they will." Replied Kotorra.

"WHAT?"

"That part was actually Kakashi's idea." The dark-skinned girl shrugged. "He said it would provide more motivation for them to concentrate on what they are doing."

Asuma conceded that Kakashi had a point but it still seemed like it was going a little too far. Kotorra pointed out that if they didn't want to be exposed to danger they ought not to have become shinobi.

"Besides, Kakashi and I tested it. The most that will happen is getting blown backward a foot or two, hence the reason we're in an open field for this training."

BOOM! "WAAH!" CRASH. Kiba was flat on his back looking a little dazed.

"Oh, Male Subject Three apparently let his ChakLev go to high and wasn't able to correct his chakra flow in ten seconds."

"Kiba, take a five minute break and then get back to it." Kurenai ordered.

"Hai." Groaned Kiba.

"Hmm…all three female subjects appear to be doing very well controlling their chakra, keeping the balls at a nice, steady height." Kotorra nodded. "But can they maintain it for the requisite thirty minutes?"

It appeared that of the three of them, only Hinata was able to last long enough to switch hands. Ino had almost made it but lost her concentration when Sakura dropped her ChakLev and both girls had been knocked onto their behinds. As for the boys, Sasuke's ChakLev frequently fluctuated between below and above the two inch height limit, but he managed to keep the device from exploding in his face and perform the handoff. Shino had no trouble at all with the exercise, but was starting to show signs of fatigue in the middle of the second part of the training. Chouji and Kiba had the most trouble keeping the ball from going above the two inch mark and had to restart the exercise several times before making it to the handoff point.

After four hours, the jounins called a halt and the ChakLev's were returned to Kotorra.

"Well, this time around I'd have to say that Hinata, Sasuke have the best balance of control and stamina. Shino, Ino, and Sakura need to work on their stamina while Kiba and Chouji need help with their control." Asuma stated. "Tomorrow Hinata and Sasuke can move on to another exercise while the rest of you will continue with this one until you can do it flawlessly."

"Hai sensei." Chorused the genin. Kotorra clapped her hands, getting everyone's attention.

"Well, since you all worked so hard today how about I reward you by treating you to dinner?" She got a chorus of cheers as her response. She smiled. "_I can afford to be a little generous_," she thought to herself. "_after all, if my research yields good results I'll make a fortune!_"

* * *

1) The reason Kurenai doesn't call Kotorra "chan" is that she generally does not act like the teenage girl she technically is. Using "san" would be far too impersonal as Kotorra is well acquainted with the Rookie 9, so Kurenai calls her Kotorra-kun (which is actually correct since their working relationship is like a senior employee and a junior employee). Kakashi calls her Kotorra-chan simply because he knows it annoys her.


	7. Ordinary Day in Suna

Killing Time  
Chapter Seven: Ordinary Day in Suna  
By Kaori

Seeing as how she'd done nothing but annoy Kankuro for almost a month, Gina decided that status quo is god and kept on doing it. It was starting to make the poor genin paranoid. So while his siblings found it quite entertaining, it was in everyone's best interest to stop her lest the poor boy completely lose his mind and get stabby. One of their methods involved having Gina spar with Gaara (since his hand taijutsu is worse than Naruto's(1) and his most recent battles have shown this cannot be allowed to continue). The Sabaku siblings were rather surprised at how strong the non-shinobi actually was…

They were about a quarter mile away from the village's southern gate. Gina had dressed herself in a pair of purple shorts and a short-sleeved white tunic. Her long hair was put up into a tight bun to keep it out of her way and giving Gaara less incentive to make a grab for it should he get desperate. Gaara himself was dressed in his usual clothes minus his gourd of sand. They stood about six feet apart from each other. Gina took her stance.

"Whenever you're ready." She said. Gaara regarded her silently before feinting to the right and making a dash towards her. Gina immediately shifted her right foot behind her and twisted her body away so that Gaara passed by her, then grabbed the back of his shirt, fell back, and flipped his body over hers before rolling onto her feet and going after him with a vicious axe kick. Gaara managed to get out of the way to avoid it but the ground where he had been erupted in a ten foot explosion of sand and rock. Kankuro and Temari gaped. Gina grinned at their expressions. "My bones are like concrete and I weigh almost half a ton. Do you honestly expect someone who carries around that kind of weight on a constant basis _not_ to hit like a wrecking ball?"

"I thought you displaced a lot of water in the bath but I just chalked it up to there being two people in it." Muttered Temari.

"You move pretty fast for someone so heavy." Kankuro remarked, snidely. Gina flipped him off and then turned her attention to her sparring partner.

"You okay over there Gaara?"

"I'm fine" Gaara replied, as he got to his feet. "Let's continue."

"''Atta boy! Here I come!"

They'd gone at it for almost an hour, only having to stop because while she may be able to out-maneuver and out-muscle Gaara for now, there was no way she was a match for his stamina. Having a demonic tanuki sealed inside you does wonders for your staying power.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Temari asked a collapsed Gina.

"Trained…for three years…" she gasped, staring up at the blonde. "…with a monk." This was not a lie, her trainer in martial arts had been a monk. Granted he belonged to an order that is considered heretical on his homeworld but who was she to judge?

"A monk? Don't they have some sort of code against associating with women, let alone teaching them how to fight?" Kankuro challenged. "Why would a monk teach _you _anyway?"

"His order doesn't have any qualms about teaching _anyone_ how to fight." Gina stated, having gotten her breath back some. "As for how I ended up as his student, he didn't have a choice. Boss man said to train me, so he trained me."

"So what's that style called?" asked Temari. Gina's response was a serious of incomprehensible growls. "What?" She repeated the noises.

"That's what it's called. The closest translation to this language is: attacking other people in a manner that will render them unable to attack you anymore."

"That's…rather direct."

"Ha, if you think that was direct you should hear what my teacher's name translated to."

"Somehow I think I'd be sorry if I asked."

"You're right. So, can we have lunch yet? I'm starving."

After lunch the teenagers went their separate ways. The Sabaku Siblings went to meet Baki for today's missions, so Gina decided to take a nap before going back outside to train on her own.

"After all," she muttered rolling her neck. "practice makes perfect." No one was around to see anything; not that she would have cared if she'd had an audience, but she found it a lot easier to focus when she didn't have to worry about people getting injured if she lost control. "We'll start with something small…"

It was almost dark when the Suna trio returned home, all three expecting their energetic houseguest to meet them at the door in some outrageous manner or other; Kankuro was actually walking a few steps behind his siblings in anticipation of this. It was the biggest surprise to all three of them to find that not only was the girl not doing something ridiculous she wasn't even in the house. Searching the house for a few minutes turned up a note telling them not to panic and that she'd gone to train on the southern side of the village.

"Why do I have to go find her?" groused Kankuro.

"Because I have to make dinner and Gaara will only encourage her if she's doing something crazy." Temari said. "Now hurry up."

As if to mock the blazing heat during the daylight hours, the temperature in the desert dropped to a comfortable 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Making his way to the outskirts of the village he wondered, not for the first time, what he was doing out here looking for a girl who made it a point to torment him at least twice a day. "I do it because my big sister said so and my little brother still scares the shit out of me." He decided. The same sister that up until recently didn't so much smile as smirk sardonically; the little brother who no less than two weeks ago had learned to laugh…even if it was at him. He let out an aggravated sigh. Maybe being the butt of that crazy girl's jokes wasn't so bad if it meant his family could have a normal relationship at last. Kankuro cut off his musings as he came across his quarry.

The long-haired mulatto had fallen asleep against a large boulder, most likely worn out from training if the dirt on her clothes and skin was any indication. Her face held a somewhat melancholy expression, as though she was dreaming of something she'd lost; quite different from the slightly deranged grin she usually sported.

"The crazy ones always look so damned innocent when they're sleeping." He muttered to himself. He walked the rest of the way over and unceremoniously kicked her in the hip. Predictably Gina yelped and jumped away. "Get up, it's time for dinner." He watched as he stretched her arms above her head and gave a mighty yawn. "What kind of idiot sleeps out in the open where they can be stung by scorpions or mauled to death by wild animals?"

"Hey, be nice or I'll make your life suck even more than it already does." Gina muttered, getting to her feet. Surprisingly that threat actually worried him.

As they were walking back to the house Kankuro asked just what Gina had been doing out there. Gina looked at him askance before suddenly stamping her foot on the ground. Instantly a seven foot stone spike shot up out of the ground in front of her.

"That…and some other things." She replied. "Although I have to admit, the stonespike was an accident."

"You did that by accident?" Kankuro twitched.

"The first time." Gina clarified. "I was frustrated that the thing I was actually trying to do wasn't working and when I stamped my foot…" she did it again and another spike shot up, shattering the first. "that happened. So far I can make five in one shot."

"Hmph, and just what _had_ you been trying to do in the first place?"

"Not telling." Kankuro gave an irritated grunt. "Well there's no point in telling you since I didn't manage to do it anyway. Now walk up, I'm hungry and you're walking slower than my grandmother." Kankuro sputtered indignantly but walked faster.

* * *

1) Gaara's taijutsu (as at the release of the third Naruto data book) is a 2 out of 5 whereas Naruto's is 3.5. However at this point in the story (first data book) his taijutsu is ranked at 1.


	8. Survivor Kusa no Kuni

Sorry for the delay with this chapter but my laptop up and died on me and I finally decided to bite the bullet and use the computer in our library/home office until my new laptop comes. Sorry for the short chapter but my brain is also kind of fried.

Killing Time  
Chapter Eight: Survivor – Kusa no Kuni  
By Kaori

As they approached the border between Taki no Kuni and Kusa no Kuni Bradley noticed the difference in the air the closer they got to it. The air in Taki no Kuni was damp with moisture but Kusa no Kuni smelled, at least to him, like freshly cut wet grass. There were also subtle changes in the plant life and for a while he asked Jiraiya about every strange plant he saw only to be disappointed when the older man either could not identify it, stated that the plant had no practical use, or that said plant is poisonous. Naruto was even less he helpful despite his love of watering plants (1). Bradley called him out on it to which the younger boy replied, "Sure I water 'em but that doesn't mean I know what they are." Slightly miffed, Bradley resigned himself to admiring the lush forest.

Per their current routine, they would be surviving in the forests and caves away from civilization for this portion of their journeys. The Toad Sage had sent a report to Tsunade via a contact in the textile producing town they'd left behind.

"So, Ero-sennin," Naruto ventured. "what are we doing out here?"

"I told you already, you are going to work on your survival skills." replied Jiraiya, taking a moment to pick a rather large mushroom. "If somehow you get separated from me during our travels I need to know that you'll be able to survive until you get somewhere safe."

"There is no such place." Muttered Bradley. The other two men didn't seem to hear him.

"Eh? But I did all that stuff back at the Academy." Groused Naruto, folding his arms.

"And you'll do it again now." Jiraiya said firmly. "I've already seen your taijutsu and I've already had to show you how to use your chakra more effectively. I am not taking for granted that they took the time to properly train you how to survive on your own in the wilderness…or that you even paid attention. For your sake I hope so because you'll be on your own for a week." He then turned to Bradley. "As for you, your job is to make sure he doesn't get himself killed during this exercise. I suggest staying in the form of a wolf during the day to hunt for food, but don't give Naruto any. In fact, don't have any contact him at all, just observe. Set up a different camping area for yourself and just keep track of him."

"And just what will you be doing?" growled Bradley.

"Research."

"Even the animals aren't safe from your perversion!" Naruto cried.

"OI!"

They set up camp, ate, and went to bed. In the morning Naruto and Bradley woke up to the unpleasant surprise of having no camp and no food; Jiraiya somehow managing to pack up everything and leave without waking either of them.

Bradley gave the air a tentative sniff and frowned. There was a lot more moisture present than the previous day which meant they were in for a lot of rain. This was shaping up to be a rather unpleasant experience; if the weather conditions were bad it would make it that much harder to survive the week. "That old pervert probably planned on it too." He muttered.

"Eh?" blinked Naruto.

"Nothing, just thinking out loud." Grunted Bradley. "At any rate, I suppose I'd best be running off. I don't want to think what that old goat will do to me if he finds out I didn't follow instructions."

"I won't tell him." The blonde protested, not wanting to be left on his own in strange environs so soon.

"Sorry kiddo but Jiraiya was right when he said you need to learn how to survive." Naruto's look only soured some more, causing the older boy to sigh heavily. "I'll be around. Don't forget I'm supposed to make sure you don't die, and before that I promised Kakashi I'd look after you. Also, I'm pretty sure Jiraiya didn't go far. It doesn't make sense that he'd leave you out in the middle of nowhere with those Akatsuki guys trying to find you." The blonde seemed to be thinking about that so Bradley placed his hands on his shoulders and looked him in the eyes. "You're strong Naruto, just try to use your head and you'll get through the week no problem." Naruto nodded sharply. "Good."

Bradley removed his hands from Naruto's shoulders and took a few steps backward. Sniffing the air once more, he shifted into a large, grey wolf. He gave Naruto one more parting nod before snatching up his satchel in his teeth and running off into the forest.

He'd missed this sensation. It'd been an exceedingly long time since he had been able to run free like this; he'd almost forgotten what it felt like. The air whipped through his fur and he felt like he was flying over the ground. The world seemed to narrow down to himself and the smell of the forest. There were no ninja, no evil organization, no deranged snake man, and no fear; just himself and his instincts. A raindrop landing on his nose broke the euphoric spell of his run and he slowed to a loping gait. Now was not the time to be enjoying himself; he was exposed in new and foreign territory and it was going to rain. He needed to find shelter and quickly.

* * *

1) Watering plants is one of Naruto's hobbies according to the data book; the other being pulling pranks naturally.


	9. You Ain't a Piece o' Serious

Killing Time  
Chapter Nine: You Ain't a Piece o' Serious  
By Kaori

So far Kotorra's research wasn't yielding the results she expected but she did get results. For one thing she had figured out _why_ chakra exhaustion kills people. After analyzing the energy she'd learned that the spiritual energy was exactly that; the energy utilized by a person's spirit. Physical energy maintains the body, spiritual energy maintains the spirit or soul of a person and if depleted pretty much means the person has forcibly extinguished their own soul on this plane of existence. She gained a certain admiration for shinobi in that respect; there were entire planets full of sentient beings that strove every day for that kind of control over their own spirits. Comparatively, overuse of her teke had its own risk: mainly rendering her brain-dead indefinitely. Not as bad as being _completely_ dead but not something you'd want to risk, especially not on the battlefield.

Her experiments with the ChakLev balls had given her a few ideas for some practical devices, but nothing she was quite ready to start working on yet. As for her unwanted visitors, they were still prowling around and had fortunately not managed to discover the hidden door to her lair in the basement. The only ninja who had ever been down there was Naruto and that was before her alterations to it. She really didn't want anyone except her fellow Wild Cards to know just what went on down there. They either wouldn't understand and she and her friends would have to leave, or they'd be a little bit _too_ interested and try to duplicate her technology. Both outcomes were exceedingly unappealing to the brown-skinned teenager.

As for her efforts in discovering the identities of the intruders she was no closer. It would help if they spoke to each other when they invaded her residence so she could figure out who they were through voice recordings but they kept using those damnable hand signals. Kotorra had to stop thinking about her pest problem when she heard Sasuke over the monitor.

"She's got to be in the house somewhere, she didn't go to the restaurant today." he said. Kotorra turned her attention to the screen. Sasuke and the rest of his team were in the dining room. She sighed, getting up from her chair to tend to her houseguests. Research and morons sneaking into the house would have to wait.

"What's up guys? Did Tsunade finally decide to let us out of the village for a mission or have you finally going to take me up on my offer to make Gai and Lee mute for a week?" she joked as she entered the dining room.

"The first one." Kakashi acknowledged. "We're to see an acquaintance of hers in Tanzoku-Gai and assist him with some trouble."

"From what I remember about the place, this "acquaintance" is most likely someone she owes money." the Wild Card quipped dryly.

In the morning Kotorra and Team 7 reported to the Hokage for their mission.

"Now that you're all here I can explain this mission." Tsunade said. "My good friend Morimoto-san is hosting a little card tournament. Unfortunately, of late there have been numerous attempts on his life as he has become quite successful and one of his competitors is taking more than offense to this. The competition will be the best chance they have of getting rid of him for good so Kotorra has been entered as a participant as a cover for Team 7's presence."

"Wait, wait, wait." Kotorra interrupted. "Why the heck am I even going? Couldn't they just guard the guy without me having to be there?" she suddenly scowled. "How much are we getting paid for this mission?" The Hokage suddenly found the right corner of her office very interesting.

"Well, seeing as how I owe Morimoto-san quite a bit of money I couldn't possibly think of charging him for our services..."

"So if I don't win any cash at this tournament Team 7 doesn't get paid?"

"We're counting on you, Kotorra-chan!" Kakashi said cheerfully. Kotorra glared at him.

"Oh, and since our budget is a little tight at the moment...paying the costs of repairs to the village and whatnot, we'd really appreciate it if you brought your own gambling money." Tsunade said. The Wild Card turned her glare on the Hokage.

"You ain't a piece o' serious." she growled. "I don't even know how to play poker! How do you expect me to win any money?"

"What could you possibly need more money for?" Sasuke quipped.

"Don't you know Sasuke? You can't do anything in this world without it and you can do a lot if you have more than enough." Kotorra declared adamantly. "Besides, most of it goes back into my business and if I ever want to expand without having to borrow I need to hoard as much loot as possible." she turned back to the Hokage. "Out of curiosity what game are we playing? Poker? Blackjack? Basset? It better not be basset, I suck at basset."

" Shichi Nijyu Shichi (1) and I _know_ you know how to play seeing as how you taught it to Naruto." Kotorra gave a half annoyed sigh.

"What can I say, the kid has the most uncanny luck at gambling and I wanted to see if there was a card game I could beat him at."

"Did you succeed?" Kakashi asked out of curiosity.

"How do you think his ramen tab got paid off?"

"That brat has the most obscene luck of anyone I've ever met." Tsunade said fondly.

"Must've been where all yours went." Kotorra muttered.

"What was that?"

"Oh nothing, nothing at all...So, when are we leaving and how long should I tell Enji (2) and the others that I'll be gone?"

It turns out they had to be in Tanzoku-Gai before the end of the week so to give themselves time to hash things out with the client and do a proper inspection of the venue they would have to leave first thing in the morning.

While she was packing for the trip, Sasuke knocked on her doorframe (she left her bedroom door open when she wasn't asleep or dressing). "Hey Sasuke, you need something?" The Uchiha shook his head but took a step into her bedroom. "Something bothering you?"

"I wanted to ask you for a favour."

"Ask away."

* * *

_What did Sasuke ask__for you wonder? You'll have to wait to find out, we're going back to Suna! And hey, I managed to work the chapter title into the story!  
_

1) Seven Twenty-Seven is like a hybrid between poker and blackjack. To me it is far easier to follow and a lot simpler to play.

2) If you don't remember who this is I don't blame you. He was hired way back in chapter 55 of Where the Hell Are We Now! and I had unfortunately forgotten about him up until now.


	10. In Which Gina Gets into a Fix

Killing Time  
Chapter Ten: In Which Gina Gets into a Fix  
By Kaori

Kankuro was very nervous, bordering fearful. He hadn't seen hide nor hair from Gina since breakfast and was getting more and more worried that she was off planning something crazy or worse already doing it. He'd asked Temari about it but his sister said that the other girl had only mentioned something about running an errand. Gaara was volunteering at the academy so he couldn't ask him. Gina had suggested the red-head get better at interacting with other people through mentoring. Kankuro wasn't too sure that was such a good idea, especially since many people still feared Gaara. He didn't want his little brother to be subjected to more emotional scarring and he's said as much; Gina just gave him a flat look.

"When a broken bone doesn't heal correctly you break it again and set it right. He has to learn how to live with others if he's going to move beyond what happened in the past." she'd said. "If people don't get to see that he's changed then how are they supposed to know? Gaara's a sweet kid, he'll do fine."

"Stupid girl, what does she know." grumbled Kankuro as he fiddled with Karasu's joints. He was doing maintenance on his puppets in an effort to stop worrying about what the older girl was up to and having no success. Just this week she'd poured cement into his bathwater, mixed itching powder into his makeup, dropped a water balloon full of camel spit on his head , nailed all of his sandals to the ceiling, and bleached half of his clothes; and today is only Tuesday. "Annoying pest."

Said "annoying pest" was walking through the marketplace on a mission: looking for copper.

Three days ago Faust had come flying in with a response from Kotorra. In between the snarky comments about Gina being an idiot, thanks for the suggestion for Faust, and an update on the present situation in Konoha (Gina was really steamed that the other Wild Card was going on a mission) there was a request for Gina to buy some copper. Apparently it was somewhat expensive to buy it in Konoha since they actually imported the metal, so Kotorra asked that she buy her about thirty-five pounds of it in Suna where it was much cheaper.

"I still don't get why she didn't just buy the stuff there, it's not like she can't afford it." Gina griped. She had wanted to go spy on Gaara and see how he was getting on at the Academy. Instead she was wandering around trying to find someone who sold copper so she could ship it to Konoha for her machine-creating friend. "I wonder what she wants it fo...AAACK!" she cried, as she tripped over something and landed sprawled on the ground. She got up but was suddenly pushed off balance into a nearby alley. Rolling onto her side and looking over her shoulder she immediately realized that she had not stumbled over anything, but had been tripped. The perpetrator was standing just behind her along with two sneering companions.

"My, my how clumsy of you." leered the man. He appeared to be in his mid-twenties with a cruel mouth and an angular face framed by long, dark brown hair.

Gina stood up quickly dusting herself off. This sort of person was usually best gotten away from quickly. She shoved passed him but he grabbed her left elbow, which she quickly manoeuvred out of his grasp. As she turned to go his two friends stepped in front of her. She glared at them.

"Now where are you going in such a rush, eh?" the one on her left sneered. He was taller than her original assailant and was wearing a bandana that covered his face. The other man was her height but broader with dirty blonde hair and a chubby face which was sporting a sick grin. The sound of footsteps behind her brought her attention back to the brunette who was still leering.

"Don't be like that, we only want to show you a good time." he looked her up and down. "You look like a fun girl."

"I don't think you'd appreciate my idea of fun." Gina said deliberately, slowly working her gloves off. Unfortunately chubby face grabbed her hands before she could finish. Internally she cursed. This is what comes of letting yourself be guarded by others; complacency will get you into trouble every time.

"Hey I'm up for anything, but don't you think we should go somewhere a little more intimate?"

"No." she said shortly and stamped her foot. Chubby face let out a scream as a stone spike went right through his left foot, immediately relinquishing his hold on the mulatto.

"Fucking whore..." growled the tall one, making to grab for her hair but she ducked and landed a backhand strike to his kidneys then followed up by kneeing him in the groin. Pain suddenly arced through her back and she only had enough presence of mind to turn around and move to the side. Her eyes caught sight of the brunette with a bloody knife in his hands as he passed her; apparently he had been coming in for another stab. Tall guy had managed to get himself under control in that short space of time and got her into a headlock. "You should've just come along nice and quiet, we would've just let you go when we were done. Now we're gonna fuck you up so bad you'll be begging us to kill you." He put his own knife to her neck.

The brunette had managed to free chubby's foot and Gina was regretting not killing the guy outright. This whole situation was starting to piss her off, she could feel the anger welling up from the pit of her stomach and radiating throughout her body.

If it wasn't for the suddenly surprised looks on her attackers' faces she never would have noticed the ground shaking.

"The hell? Is it an earthquake?" yelled the brunette, trying to keep his footing and failing as the ground buckled. His friends were faring no better and the tall man's knife slipped slightly, grazing Gina's neck as he fell backwards. The ground beneath his feet rocketed upward as something burst out.

"AAAH!" chubby screamed. "MONSTER!"

Gina looked over her shoulder at the cry and was just as surprised as the three would-be rapists to see the golem standing there menacingly. Unlike the one she'd created during the invasion of Konoha, this one was only seven feet tall and was wielding a large club. When it didn't move right away, the thugs grew confident and started moving towards Gina again.

Turned out that this was the wrong thing to do.

The golem lashed out with the club catching the tallest one in the face, and knocking him into chubby and slamming them both into a wall. While the golem was dealing with the other two miscreants, long-hair had grabbed Gina again. Woozy from blood-loss, she was unable to fend him off as she was strangled.

Gina's golem started to fall apart as her consciousness started to fade. Her captor continued to suffocate her.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" snarled the brunette, increasing the pressure on her windpipe. "I'll kill you,! Kill you! KILL YOU! GRAAAACKKK!" His rant cut off as he suddenly became very still, his grip slackened and Gina fell wheezing and gasping for air. The last thing she saw before she passed out was a figure dressed in black.

Kankurou gave a heavy sigh. He hadn't been able to concentrate properly on his task and had gone looking for the wayward Wild Card. After inquiring at a few shops he finally managed to track her down to the unfinished goods quarter of the merchant district. The sounds of fighting and the smell of blood from the alley near the ore shop immediately set him on edge. He'd arrived just in time to see Gina be snatched up by the brown-haired man. Acting quickly, Kankuro drew a kunai and swiftly moved in to slit the man's throat. He caught Gina as she collapsed, taking not that her usually bronze-skinned girl was taking on a greyish pallor, undoubtedly from the still-bleeding knife wound.

He'd picked her up and taken her to the hospital where she'd received medical attention and was now sitting by her bedside waiting for her to regain her senses.

"Oowwww..." Gina moaned, scrunching her face in displeasure before opening her eyes slowly. "Am I going to get a stab wound every time I go to a ninja village? If this keeps up I'm going to be full of holes before I'm twenty."

"It's divine punishment for being such a mischievous gargoyle." Kankuro stated flatly. Gina rolled her eyes over to regard him.

"If that's so then it's disproportionate punishment. I haven't made you suffer nearly that much, I have work to do."

"Is that any way to repay the guy who saved your life?" the genin said. "Perhaps I should finish the job right now."

"If you regret it so much maybe you should." Gina couged, throat still sore from the abuse.

"Hey, what kind of person do you take me for? I saved you because your one of the few friends Gaara's got. I let you die and he'd never forgive me. So as much as you irritate the shit out of me, I had to save you."

"Nnh, it's a start I guess." They sat there in silence for a few moments. "What?"

"Why?" Kankuro asked.

"Why what?" countered Gina.

"Why do you play all those tricks on me?" ground out the Suna shinobi. Gina let out a small chuckle.

"I was wondering if you'd ever ask." she murmured. She sighed. "In my family, I'm the youngest of four girls. I don't have any brothers. Kotorra has a little brother and Bradley has his little cousin who is like a sister to him so they know what it's like to have someone to tease. My sisters used to play practical jokes on me all the time so I thought I'd try it out. If it makes you feel any better, I call Uchiha Sasuke names and tease Uzumaki Naruto as well."

"But you've been making fun of me ever since we met." Kankuro pointed out.

"True, but back then I was doing it because I was bored."

"And now?"

"Now...now I do it because it's one of the few things that keeps me from missing my family all the time." was the quiet reply.

"...I see." murmured Kankuro. Really what could you say to something like that. He'd never been truly separated from Temari or Gaara like Gina is. Even before when Gaara only thought of them as potential targets, he'd never not been with his family. For Gina, someone who had grown up with a normal family relationship to find themselves separated from that environment for so long, he supposed the older girl had to find some way of dealing with it. Was that so different than how he used training to deal with the fear he used to feel around Gaara?

"If it really bothers you that much," Gina interrupted his reverie. "I won't play anymore practical jokes on you."

"I'd... appreciate it." then he got a funny glint in his eye. "But, would you mind sparring with me sometime? My taijutsu's not that much better than Gaara's."

"Only if you get me out of this hospital today. No way in hell I'm spending the night in here."

"Heh, deal."


	11. Surprise Runins

Killing Time  
Chapter Eleven: Surprise Run-ins  
By Kaori

They'd been on their own for three days now. Four more days to go until Jiraiya came back for them. Bradley hoped the old man was coming back for them otherwise he'd have no choice but to run back to Konoha with Naruto.

As he'd been ordered, he'd set up a separate camp for himself away from Naruto. Well, camp was a stretch to describe his current accommodation; he'd dug out a burrow of sorts underneath the roots of a large tree and was using it as his sleeping quarters. There was a an abundance of wildlife in the forest to eat and he'd observed the animals around him and figured out which plants were outright poisonous and which were not. There was a stream nearby and with a water filter made from a water bottle with the top cut off, charcoal he'd taken from the extinguished campfire, creek sand, a mesh made from grass, and rocks he was able to drink it without too much fear from parasites and bacteria. Sure the water appeared to be clear, but animals relieve themselves in rivers and you couldn't be too cautious.

Skinning the rabbit he'd killed just five minutes ago, he found himself snorting at how being abandoned on a deserted island at a young age had once again turned to his advantage.

Unlike Gina and Kotorra's parents, Bradley's parents had been far from supportive when his wild card turned over. It was unfortunate, but not everyone accepted that wild cards are just as much human as people who hadn't triggered the virus; his parents were such people.

He was seven years old, when it had happened. They had just gotten back from visiting friends in Dumfries and he'd gone to bed, exhausted from spending the entire afternoon playing with the gregarious dogs his friends owned. He'd thought they were the most amazing things in the world: agile, quick-witted, and possessed a kind of free spirit he wished he could have. His parents were strict, not having any patience for "frivolous" things like television or the Internet; intolerant of anything they considered a sin(1) and distrustful of everything foreign Bradley was raised in a world of strict discipline and almost stifling xenophobia. He'd wished he was a dog. Dogs seemed to be allowed happiness even when they were owned.

Something inside him decided to grant his wish.

The pain had sent him writhing out of his bed screaming as bones shifted, muscle and sinew adjusted, and soon he was no longer human. His flailing and cries of pain had brought his parents running into his room.

He could feel his skin crawling as muscle and bone rearranged themselves. His head ached as he felt his inner ear changing, the outer vestiges of the organ sliding up his head and morphing into a new shape. Teeth became sharper, hands became more like paws, and his spine lengthened to accommodate his tail. In addition to all this, his parents had gotten over their shock and began to beat him.

He'd faded in and out of consciousness during the ordeal, waking up once when they'd bound him hand and foot, again sometime after they'd out him in the trunk of the car, and finally in just enough time to see them sailing back to Cat Island.

He was out there alone for a year before he was picked up by Defence Force officers on patrol for illegal immigrants. They'd taken him to the police station and he'd called the only person he could, his Aunt Joy. She'd come for him almost immediately.

Joy, his mother's older sister, didn't share his parent's hatred of Wild Cards and had been shunned by the rest of the family because of it. Apparently his parents had told everyone he had gone swimming in a blue hole (2) and drowned; they wanted to cover up what had happened. No child of theirs would be "an abomination unto God".

The sound of something landing heavily in a puddle forced him from his dark memories, he scented the air and cursed. Human, but he was having trouble placing the scent as all the moisture in the air was interfering with his sense of smell. It would be best to hide until he could learn the identity of the newcomer. Quickly he ducked into the foliage, mindful of the rabbit carcass in his hands, and moved downwind of where he'd heard the sound. He shifted into the form of a gray fox to make himself less conspicuous and listened.

"God dammit! I've got mud in places I didn't even know I had!" griped a female voice, the sound of disgusted brushing of skin on fabric met his ears. "Honestly, I'll bet that old pervert planned this just so he could try and get a glimpse of me washing the mud off in the river. Well too bad! I'm not bathing until I get back to Konoha!"

At the mention of the hidden village, Bradley decided to stick his nose out to see who the angry woman was. He was noticed immediately as the woman whirled around to face what she perceived to be an enemy. Now that he could see her properly he recognized her as the crazy jounin that had rescued his friends and himself from an angry mob, Mitarashi Anko.

"Oh, it's only a fox." she sighed as she put her kunai away. Her guard was still up but it was obvious she wasn't about to attack him. "You wouldn't have happened to have seen a white-haired pervert with two brats with him?" Bradley snorted and changed back into his human form. This was a slight miscalculation on his part. "WHAT THE HELL!" In her surprise she re-drew her kunai and now had it pointed at his throat.

"Ack! Anko-san! It's me! It's me!" he cried out frantically.

"Geez, kid don't do that! I could have killed you!" once again the kunai went back from whence it came.

"Sorry, but I can't speak in that form and I really didn't feel like playing charades."

"I see. Well, now that that's cleared up what are you doing here alone? I thought Jiraiya was supposed to be with you."

"Ah. You see, it's like this." And he explained how the toad hermit had ditched them three days ago with this so-called survival training exercise while he ran off to do who-knows-what. "I suspect he's still in the area somewhere; even he's not _that_ irresponsible." _I hope_... he silently added to himself. Anko gave an annoyed sigh.

"Great, so that means I'm going to have to scour this swamp looking for that old lecher."

"I could help you if you like." Bradley offered. "If it's that important the sooner you find him the better."

"What about the Uzumaki kid?" Anko asked. "Aren't you supposed to be looking out for him?"

"I asked the local wildlife for assistance. If he gets into any trouble they'll let me know."

"Well, that's handy. In that case let's go!"

* * *

1) I went to school with a girl whose upbringing was like this. Her father absolutely refused to allow anything that was not generic brand into the house and would throw out anything with a name brand; big companies were tools of the Devil and owed their success to him, not the fact that their products are superior. Oddly enough, his philosophy did not extend to brand name clothing...

2) A blue hole is like an underwater sink hole and most contain both fresh water and salt water. There are blue holes on almost every island in my country most of which are landlocked but there are a few in the open water as well. It is generally a bad idea to go diving in one without special equipment because you can get lost and drown or get sucked in deeper by the current (and drown). For a visual, look up videos of Dean's Blue Hole in The Bahamas on YouTube.


	12. Return to TanzakuGai

_Bullfrog dress up in soldier's clothes  
Went to the river to shoot some crows  
Bullfrog fire and they all fly away, Lord  
Bullfrog get vex and he cry all day._

Killing Time  
Chapter Twelve: Return to Tanzaku-Gai  
By Kaori

"What took you so long?" Sakura blurted out as Kotorra and Sasuke came out of the house with their luggage. Kotorra jerked her thumb in Sasuke's direction.

"Sorry, _somebody_ doesn't listen to instructions very well." Sasuke crossed his arms in annoyance and looked away peevishly.

"What do you mean?"

Twenty minutes ago...

"Sasuke if you don't hold still I'm going to strap you to the coffee table. How do you expect me to get an accurate reading if you keep squirming?" Kotorra chastised, waving the pronged instrument she had been using on him in agitation.

"Well when you prod people with sharp objects they're going to flinch." Sasuke said. "OW! You did that on purpose!"

"Oh quit whining. Aren't you a ninja?"

"Yes, a ninja not a pincushion. What are you doing this for anyway?" he scowled.

"I wouldn't have bothered if this mission hadn't come up. We could've waited until the copper Gina's buying gets here to take your measurements but unfortunately the copper will be here before we get back and I'd like to get most of the data I need before it does to save time." she leered at him. "I'm going to have to do it no matter what. That is, unless you _want_ this thing to fry you from the inside out. If you do I can recommend a far less painful method of committing suicide." Sasuke grimaced at that.

"That won't be necessary."

"Then you need to hold still." she held up the pronged probe and absently waved it from side to side as she spoke. "I need to get an accurate idea of your normal level of bioelectricity and _this_ is the fastest way to do it. I already have a very good map of your chakra signature but without this additional data you'll still end up a crispy critter." explained the Wild Card.

"You can tell the difference between people's chakra?" Sasuke asked, intrigued. Kotorra paused before answering him.

"_I_ can't but I have a machine that can. Chakra is almost like a fingerprint or a DNA sample; when I compared Neji and Hinata's chakra signatures it was plain to see they were related. I'm still trying to see if you can determine a person's ..." she suddenly realized she was rambling. "Enough, we're wasting time. Sakura and Kakashi will be here any minute and I want to collect all this data now so I can have it ready to use when we get back." Sasuke seemed disappointed for some reason.

"Tch. Fine..."

Present time...

"Don't worry about it." Kotorra replied flippantly. Sakura levelled a glare at her but she ignored it."Can we go now?"

Unlike her last trip to Tanzaku-Gai, Kotorra and the others would be arriving by carriage. Most of the trip was spent in idle conversation and at one point they'd stopped to pray at a shrine. Well, the ninja prayed at the shrine, Kotorra took a moment to admire the scenery. They had made one more stop to eat lunch before they continued on their way to the town.

"Hey! I thought there was supposed to be a castle overlooking the town?" Sakura pointed out as they drew nearer. Kakashi looked out the carriage window.

"You're right." he said. "The castle's completely gone. I wonder what happened to it."

"Orochimaru and Tsunade happened." Kotorra said blandly. Team Kakashi looked at her askance, she jerked her head in the general direction of the missing structure. "We got there no more than an hour after it had happened, but Bradley smelled big-ass snakes so Jiraiya and Naruto went up there to check it out. Apparently Tsunade and Orochimaru got into an argument, Orochimaru brought out the snakes, and that was it for the castle."

"Wow..." Sakura said. "So is that why Tsunade-sama is always caving to your demand? Because you know she is partially responsible for wrecking the castle?"

"Partly." Kotorra's expression was wicked. "It's mostly because she feels guilty about using my friends and I as bait for Orochimaru."

"She WHAT?" Sakura's shocked expression was expected, but Sasuke's was priceless.

They were now entering the town proper and it was as busy as ever. Sakura openly gaped at all the people milling around, quite a number of them were dressed in expensive clothing. Sasuke seemed disinterested and settled for just staring out the window in general. Kakashi looked nonchalant but his visible eye was roving the crowded streets and examining every building they passed. Kotorra was reminiscing about her last trip here and looking for potential places to expand her business; the festival had brought in a ton of people and the sheer amount of potential clientele caused her to subconsciously rub her hands together.

The carriage pulled up to a modest estate far outside the main part of the town, much to Kotorra's relief. She had been worried that they'd be lodging near the red-light district as Jiraiya was wont to do. They were met at the front gate by the porter and a footman and escorted to meet the master of the estate.

When Tsunade had said they were helping an "a good friend" of hers they expected someone much older. The rather short, thirty-something they were currently in the presence of didn't even look like the type of person to run a _lottery_ let alone a casino. Still, looks can be very deceiving. Morimoto Yusuke, while young, controls a small business empire and a sizeable fortune; keeping control of such assets isn't a job for someone weak-minded or careless.

"Welcome to my home." he greeted. "I hope your journey was a pleasant one."

"Morimoto-san." Kakashi nodded from where he knelt on the floor. "Hokage-sama sends her regards."

"Thank you for your assistance." he glanced over to the teenagers behind Kakashi. "Those are your genin I take it?"

"Two of my genin and a mercenary filling in for my third who is out on a training journey. She may not be a ninja but underestimating her would be a grave mistake." Yusuke nodded before launching into an explanation of why he had called for assistance.

In the most basic of terms, Morimoto Masamichi had been in poor health and his competitors were more than happy when he died thinking that he had left no successor. Imagine their surprise when Yusuke was brought forward.

Up until his father's death, Masamichi had never told anyone that he had married let alone fathered four children. Yusuke and his three siblings had all lived with their mother somewhere in Cha no Kuni up until their father's death. As soon as word was sent to his mother, Yusuke was immediately packed off and sent to Tanzaku-Gai to take over his father's estate. Naturally, there were people who were not happy about this and attempts had been made to pressure Yusuke to sell the business. Naturally, he refused. The death threats, attempts on his life, and various acts of vandalism and sabotage on his casinos soon followed.

Yusuke, unable to think of any other solution, called in the debt Tsunade owed his father.

"My father worked very hard to create this small empire of his." Yusuke said firmly. "My mother never had to work a day of her life with the money he sent us. He made sure we were all well taken care of and I will do whatever I can to make sure that continues. The card tournament had already been arranged prior to my father's death and I didn't dare cancel it. My competitors already use the attacks on my casinos as leverage to lure customers away, if I were to postpone or cancel the tournament it would just give them more ammunition."

"It's still quite the risk." Kotorra interjected. "You are literally gambling your own life for the sake of preserving your business' reputation. Such a risk seems a bit high... Protecting your life isn't the only thing you're asking of us is it?"

"Very astute." acknowledged the casino tycoon. "Stopping them just this time won't be enough. They've been using increasingly more drastic methods to try and get me to sell the business. Just two days ago we thwarted an arson attempt but I have no proof as to who is responsible. No, in order to put a stop to this once and for all I need you to find the responsible parties and help me bring them to justice."


	13. Interlude: Whispers in the Dark I

Killing Time

Interlude: Whispers in the Dark I

By Kaori

It was getting easier to see, but somehow that didn't make her situation any less frightening. Her last memory was a guard bringing her dinner, and then falling asleep. She'd been awakened in the dark and kept there, constantly being put to sleep only to reawaken feeling drained; she'd be allowed to eat and relieve herself before being made to sleep once more. The first time it had happened she'd tried to use her exceptional genjutsu prowess to escape but to her shock and dismay her chakra had been sealed to the point she could not even feel it.

What they wanted from her she could only guess at during her few, fleeting conscious moments. Her roommate was of no help. While she had been allowed to awaken he, and she was fairly certain the other occupant of the cell was male, did not. He was very tall, and they kept him unconscious and strapped to the table. She spoke to him anyway, if only to keep herself from going mad.

"Then again, maybe I already am." she pulled her knees up and folded her arms across them. "I used to think that I had been imprisoned before. Now I see that I was being treated rather kindly. I don't even know how long I have been here, not as long as you I suppose but time doesn't seem to pass in this darkness. I wonder if they're looking for me...if Kurenai-sensei is looking for me. I...I want to see her. It's quite strange, I spent so much time hating her and now I want nothing more than to see her again."

She heard the sound of a key turning in the lock and stiffened, dreading what was to come next. Before the door opened, she gave a heavy sigh and whispered a forlorn "good night" to her silent roommate.

* * *

_Intentionally short, mysterious interlude before we get back to the story proper. As you can tell from the chapter title this is only the first of the Whispers in the Dark. I'm not certain how many there will be but each one is a small glimpse into the darker plots going on behind the main story._


	14. Sandstorm

Killing Time  
Chapter Thirteen: Sandstorm  
By Kaori

There was a terrible sandstorm outside so everyone who wasn't essential to guard duty stayed indoors. The siblings had not been assigned to any village duties today so they were quite happily enjoying the impromptu holiday.

Kankuro walked into the living room to see Gina lying on her stomach on the rug reading a magazine. Her back was to the door and she did not seem to hear when the cat-suited young man had entered. Looking over to the left Temari was reclined on the sofa, her hair the only thing that had given away her location. Enjoying the relaxing vibe in the room he paced in steadily and confidently. Once he was within the line of site of the other two occupants any greeting he may have had died in his throat and he recoiled in shock as both girls' faces were covered in a disgusting green slime.

"GAH!" he yelped intelligently. Temari cracked an eye open as apparently she had been dozing and Gina quirked an eyebrow at him. "What is that horrible crap on your faces?"

"As opposed to the horrible crap that's usually on yours?" Gina quipped dryly. While Gina did keep her promise not to play any more practical jokes on Kankuro, that did not prevent her from making jokes at his expense, rattling off bad puns, or other forms of verbal shenanigans whenever she had the opportunity.

Kankuro glared at her. "It's a beauty mask; makes your skin soft and radiant. With this harsh desert climate my skin was drying out and that's just not sexy."

Kankuro rolled his eyes and turned his attention to his older sister. "And what's your excuse?"

"I'm a woman too, I don't need an excuse." Temari replied dryly. "It's not like I get the opportunity to lie around and pamper myself every day. Since we can't go anywhere until the sandstorm subsides I'm going to use this opportunity to be good to myself."

Gina sat up and stretched her arms above her head, wincing as the movement aggravated the partially healed knife wound in her back. The medic-nins had managed to heal most of the wound but because her teke worked against their healing chakra, they hadn't been able to close the wound completely. As it stood, she'd have to wait for it to heal the rest of the way naturally. "Anyway, did you want something?" she asked Kankuro.

"I was just wondering where everybody was. Gaara's out in the courtyard training..."

"He's outside in _that_?" Gina interrupted. Kankuro rolled his eyes.

"It's impossible for Gaara to get hurt in a sandstorm. In fact the idea of him even being touched by it is laughable."

"Right. I keep forgetting he's got that demon stuck in his head." Kankuro's eyes actually softened at the comment.

"And I still can't get over how easily you _do_ forget."

"Wilful ignorance and selective memory have saved me from many a sleepless night." she took on a prayerful pose. "Oh spirits of stupidity thank you for shielding this humble one from the terrors and evils of reality!" Both of the Suna shinobi rolled their eyes at that. "Anyway, I'm going to wash this stuff off." she affected a rasping voice and a strange accent neither of the Sabaku siblings recognized. "Talk amongst yourselves, I'll give you a topic: the current Hokage is neither a hooker nor a shadow. Discuss (1)!" And she pranced out of the room.

Dinner time rolled around and Gaara had returned indoors yet the sandstorm continued to rage on. At the rate it was going it appeared that they would have to dig out the entire village when it finally subsided. These thoughts were far from everyone's mind as they enjoyed a meal of plain white rice, fried fish fillets, and tofu soup. Gina, who hated tofu altogether, forwent the soup and instead slathered her rice and fish with ketchup, mixed it up in her bowl and ate it with gusto (2).

"How can you eat that?" Kankuro muttered in disgust.

"What? It's all going the same place anyway and I like how it tastes." shrugged Gina. "Don't knock it until you try it."

"I'll pass...Gaara what are you doing?" Everyone turned to look at the red-head to see him mixing a small amount of rice and fish with ketchup, before taking a tentative bite. No one's eyes left him as he chewed, his eyes looking up at the ceiling briefly in speculation before he swallowed. A beat. Gaara grabbed some more rice and fish and poured on the ketchup much to the delight of Gina. "GAARA! T...TEMARI?" His sister had decided to try it as well, and while she didn't make a frantic grab for the ketchup bottle she did concede that the combination was actually kind of tasty.

Kankuro sighed, before finally giving in. He mixed a little of the rice and fish together just as his younger brother had done, dabbed on some ketchup, and took a bite. His eyes widened in surprise. "Hey, this ain't half bad." Gina looked smug.

"Oh, by the way Temari is there anywhere in the village that sells gloves?" the wild card asked the blonde.

"Hmm, aside from gardening gloves the only other gloves I've seen are only sold in the shinobi outfitter shops. Why?"

"Mine are starting to wear thin." she held up her hand. Temari nodded, noticing that she was beginning to see the girl's skin through the material. "I just need to find a decent pair so I can replace these."

"I thought you said those gloves were specially made to keep you from petrifying people by accident." Temari pointed out. "How is buying a regular pair going to help with that?"

"It's not that the gloves are made specially, but they are treated with PTFE."

"What the heck is PTFE?" Her siblings also stopped eating to listen having never heard that term before.

"Polytetrafluoroethylene (3)." Gina "clarified" only to get more befuddled looks. "Just know that it's the only thing that I _can't_ petrify (4) and the inside of my gloves are lined with it."

"And just where are you going to get this miracle substance?" Kankuro snorted.

"Let's just say I know a girl who knows a guy who has access to a chemistry lab so advanced it'd make your head a'splode; then again he doesn't exactly need a laboratory for that..."

"Riiiight."

"But I still need gloves first."

"I'll take you shopping tomorrow." Temari said.

"Thanks! Now, what's for dessert?"

* * *

1) Seriously discuss this.

2) This is one of my favourite comfort foods.

3) Better known to the rest of the world as Teflon.

4) I don't know much about chemistry but from what I understand petrifaction is what happens when a living thing is converted into stone by being infused with silica. Silica can be dissolved with hydrofluoric acid which is where we get fluorine. Fluorine is one of the chemicals used to make PTFE and since it contains this substance it might be able to stave off the effect of petrifaction. Chemistry students correct me if I'm wrong.


	15. Prelude to the Grand Conspiracy

A/N: The title of this chapter has nothing to do with the story itself...or does it?

Killing Time  
Chapter Fourteen: Prelude to the Grand Conspiracy  
By Kaori

"Why the fuck are you naked?" Bradley growled, covering his eyes in a vain attempt to remove the sight of an unclothed Jiraiya from his immediate vision; sadly the image was already burned into his mind and would remain there for quite some time.

The dog-hybrid and the snake mistress had tracked Jiraiya to a small cabin hidden within a dense, swampy area. If Bradley didn't possess the ability to converse with the wildlife they probably would never have found the place at all. They'd knocked on the door if only to alert the occupant that they were there and had the unique displeasure of being greeted by the sennin in his birthday suit.

"On the off-chance that you were smart-alecky enemies I thought I'd catch you off-guard this way. (1)" shrugged Jiraiya. "Obviously it worked." Bradley suddenly caught the hint of soap in the air and scowled.

"You liar, you were taking a bath and decided to answer the door naked just to be irritating."

"Was not." Jiraiya lied again.

"Just put on some damn clothes!" yelled Anko.

Once the white-haired man was clothed and he'd made tea, the trio got down to brass tacks.

"Now, what brings you all the way out here?" Jiraiya asked.

"I was on my way back from border patrol near Taki no Kuni when one of our runners gave me a message addressed to you." Anko stated, reaching into her coat and retrieving a scroll. She placed it on the table with a sour look. Jiraiya picked it up and unrolled it. "Whatever it is, they didn't want anyone below jounin rank to attempt getting it to you and I was the only one available." Jiraiya scowled at the contents before turning to his furry companion.

"Find Naruto, pack up your things and meet me back here in twenty minutes. Tie the kid up if you have to."

"What's going on?" Bradley asked.

"Akatsuki was spotted leaving Taki no Kuni and heading in this general direction. We're going to head back into Hi no Kuni for now and hide out near one of the outposts." Bradley gave a low growl before running out the door. Once he was certain the boy was out of earshot he turned to Anko. "Since I have you here I may as well give you my communiqué for Tsunade-hime." Anko nodded.

Bradley raced through the swamp in his mostly human form for ten minutes before remembering that canines are faster. He resumed the form of a swamp fox and wove his way through the thick foliage, occasionally stopping to ask some of the local wildlife if they'd seen a short, loud, yellow-haired human that smelled like a fox and acted like a monkey. Eventually he came across a ticked-off owl that had.

Apparently Naruto had scared away most of the prey in its usual hunting area and it had to go further afield in order to find a decent meal. Once he'd assured the owl that the boy hadn't meant any harm and would be leaving the area soon, the owl was more than happy to lead Bradley to where the boy was currently located.

Said blonde was attempting to catch fish while standing on the river's surface. Two fish were already on the shore waiting to be cleaned and cooked. Bradley approached hurriedly, returning to his normal form as soon as he was within hearing range.

"Naruto!" he yelled.

"Bradley?" blinked Naruto. "The week's not over yet, what are you doing here?"

"We have to leave. Akatsuki has been spotted heading this way and we need to head back to Hi no Kuni five minutes ago. Lead me to your camp so we can get your things." Naruto frowned, but nodded his head sharply.

It did not take very long to pack up Naruto's meagre belongings, however since destroying the camp themselves would take too long and leaving the area was top priority at the moment, Bradley had to convince a pair of bears to do it for them. They'd agreed to it in exchange for Naruto's fish. The blonde was somewhat reluctant to part with them as it was the only food he had left, but Bradley pointed out that there wasn't enough time to cook them and they'd start to smell like what they were pretty soon.

When the teenagers arrived at Jiraiya's hideout, Jiraiya was already waiting for them outside. The older man looked over Naruto, checking his condition. "All right, we need to move quickly. I've sent Anko ahead to scout for the Akatsuki. Stay close. If we do happen to run into them I want you two to keep going. No heroics, just get to the Konoha outpost."

Running as fast as caution would allow, the trio headed towards the Hi no Kuni/Kusa no Kuni border. After being on the move for two hours without stopping, Bradley and Naruto were beginning to think that they'd managed to outmanoeuvre the Akatsuki; and they were right, but not for the reason they'd thought. As they'd run into a clearing, an unavoidable consequence of the route they'd chosen, the two ninjas and one wild card stumbled across someone they had not expected to see...

"_You_!" snarled Naruto.

"Well, if it isn't Naruto-kun." an all-too pleased looking Kabuto smiled. "Who would have thought we'd run into each other out here?" the white-haired teen adjusted his glasses. "And I see Jiraiya-san is here as well as that strange ninken."

"I'm not a ninken." Bradley said offhandedly.

"I suppose not." shrugged Kabuto. "But then again, I'm not entirely certain you're human. I would love to examine you and see just how you manage to transform without using any chakra."

"The only thing you'll be examining is my teeth in your neck." Kabuto put his hands up in a placating manner.

"Now, now there is no need for hostilities. After all I didn't come here to fight."

"Then what did you come for?" Jiraiya asked.

"Oh I thought I'd replenish my supply of medicinal herbs after I finished my business in Taki no Kuni." the smile on Kabuto's face was utterly benign though everyone could hear the sinister undertone in his voice.

"Taki no Kuni? I see, so that's it. You were the one spotted leaving, does that mean Orochimaru is working with the Akatsuki?"

"Not at all, I just find it useful to travel in their colours. Misinformation is a useful tool after all."

"A useful tool for Orochimaru I'll bet." glared Jiraiya.

"Perhaps..." Kabuto responded cryptically. "As nice as this chat has been I really must be going. Oh, and if you happen across Sasuke-kun do tell him that Orochimaru-sama is still willing to offer his...assistance." He appeared to melt into the ground.

"Oh no you don't!" Naruto rushed forward, but it was too late. Kabuto was gone. He punched the ground where the conniving ninja had been. "Damn it! That snake bastard is _still_ after Sasuke!" Jiraiya placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Calm down Naruto." we still need to head back to Hi no Kuni.

"Huh? Why? The Akatsuki isn't here and Kabuto-teme's gone."

"True, but we don't know _why_ he was here and it wouldn't be prudent to stick around." he gave the blonde a teasing look. "But if you are _that_ determined to continue your survival training..." Naruto shook his head violently. Like hell he wanted to go back to sleeping in a bug-infested tent and eating nothing but fish and nuts.

Bradley was still on edge. Jiraiya and Naruto may not have noticed, but there was still an odd sense of wrongness in the air. He was certain that Kabuto was gone, but his animal instincts were screaming at him that they were being watched. He turned around in slow, deliberate circle scanning the foliage for the source of the disquieting aura. The feeling was gone before he'd turned around completely. Bradley frowned.

"Hey," Jiraiya interrupted his thoughts. "quit sightseeing, we're leaving."

Akasuna no Sasori watched in bemused silence as Jiraiya and his two charges left the clearing. He was almost certain the strange boy had sensed him somehow, despite the fact that he had hidden his chakra. Fortunately the kid had been unable to pinpoint where he had been hiding. He grudgingly had to admit that if Kabuto had not distracted them they most likely would have discovered him on his way back to where he'd left Deidara. While capturing the Kyuubi jinchuriki would have been a boon, the blonde was not his target at this time. Still, he would have to inform their leader that he had seen the jinchuriki and that he was still in the company of the Gama-sennin. Itachi and Kisame would have to bide their time it seemed.

On the other hand, Kabuto hadn't been able to give him much useful information concerning Orochimaru's plans. He was not surprised to learn that the Hebi-sennin was still coveting the Sharingan, after all it had been attempting to steal Itachi's body that had gotten his former partner expelled from the Akatsuki. He was surprised to learn that someone had managed to remove one of Orochimaru's cursed seals, thereby letting Uchiha Sasuke escape his grasp. He gave a snort. Itachi would be pleased that his little brother had escaped the snake's coils for now.

He put aside his idle musings for the moment. After all, he had arranged to meet up with Deidara at the Tsuchi no Kuni border.

* * *

1) Seriously, when you knock on someone's door do you honestly expect them to answer it in the nude? I know I'd be pretty damn surprised.


	16. Flaunting the Dough

Happy Ninja Day everyone!

Killing Time  
Chapter Fifteen: Flaunting the Dough  
By Kaori

In order to avert suspicion as to their actual business, Kotorra and company were staying in a nearby upscale hotel much to Kotorra's annoyance; perfectly justified seeing as how she was paying for all of this. Kakashi assured her that she'd be reimbursed...eventually. Less reassuring words were never spoken by such an aloof individual. Her ire was only somewhat soothed by the fact that she got a suite to herself and it could only be described as decadent.

Upon entering the room the first thing one notices is the fountain in the entryway; a three-clawed, serpentine dragon coiled around a boulder. The head was draped languidly over the top of the top of the boulder and water spouted from its open mouth. The end of the tail trailed into the water where it was obscured by more carved rock.

The dining area was next, where a low table was surrounded by large, fluffy pillows. Above the table hung a golden oil lantern. Drapes were hung around the area, providing privacy if the occupant so wished.

To the left of the dining area was a massive bed, easily larger than a California King size bed, surrounded by similar drapery to the dining area awaited. Overstuffed pillows practically begged to be pounced upon, and Kotorra ached to do so.

The entire suite was decorated in shades of deep purple, red, and gold; paintings of misty mountains and dark forests decorated the walls, and sculptures of dragons and clay urns were on the tables. She was idly running her fingers over the head of one of the dragons when someone knocked on the door. "Come in." she called. The door opened and in walked Kakashi and his genin.

"Woah and I thought my room was amazing..." murmured Sakura, unconsciously mollifying some of Kotorra's earlier annoyance. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei how come our rooms aren't this nice?"

"Bodyguards don't normally have such lavish accommodations." Kakashi explained. "It would be suspicious if we all stayed in suites. Enjoy the room you were given, I can't remember ever staying in a room that nice when I was a genin and never all to myself. Now, to keep up appearances we're going to be eating dinner in this room together. I've already given our order to the girl at the front desk."

When dinner arrived, Kakashi gave them the rundown of what they would be doing in the days leading up to the competition. They would accompany Kotorra to Morimoto's casinos keeping up the pretext of being her bodyguards. This served three purposes: the obvious one was to give Kakashi and his team a chance to look for clues as to who might be targeting Morimoto's business. Casinos aren't just good for gambling in, they are also excellent places to hear rich people gossip.

The second reason was also obvious: recognition. If Kotorra was going to pass herself off as one of the wealthy patrons come for the tournament, she needed to expose herself to the group of people she was supposed to belong to. The tournament was an exclusive, invite only event. If she was going to convince people that she belonged there, she needed those same people to be used to seeing her in a similar setting.

The final reason: a little extra gambling money couldn't hurt.

"Do you think you can win?" Sasuke asked. Kotorra gave a shrug.

"Can't say since I've never met or played with any of the other participants. We'll just have to hope I'm luckier than they are."

"And if you aren't we won't get paid." groused Sakura.

"Heh, sucks to be you. You'd best pray for my success." she turned to Kakashi. "Any luck with your investigation?" The jounin had cased the town after they'd left Morimoto's residence.

"Not as such." sighed the jounin. "Whoever is trying to ruin Morimoto-san has been very careful not to leave any clues as to his identity. I've asked around at the places that have been attacked and no one remembers seeing anything out of the ordinary before any of the incidents. Our only hope now is that the person makes a big move during the tournament. Anyway, our next round of reconnaissance starts this evening."

From her table, Kotorra briefly took note of where her three companions were before glancing at the cards she'd been dealt; eight of diamonds and ace of spades. Nineteen. She decided to bet. The man on her left did the same, the remaining two players called. On her turn she asked for another card; a ten of clubs keeping her hand at the same amount. The guy on her left took another card and went bust, the remaining two players asked for another card each.

Kotora bet again. The man sitting across from her raised, and the guy on her right called. She asked for another card. Eight of spades. She grinned mentally; 27, a perfect hand.

Meanwhile, the ninja were pretending to watch their friend while listening to the gossip going on around them. So far all they'd learned were things Morimoto had told them already, and that the idle rich were called so for good reason. However, one of the patrons caught Kakashi's attention.

He looked to be only a few years older than himself; messy dark hair with a slightly green tinge to it framed a handsome, somewhat familiar-looking face. He was dressed like most of the other wealthy gamblers in the room, in a three-piece suit, but on his lapel was a square pin with a small green stone embedded into it. The man had not spoken to anyone in the room and it appeared that he was watching Kotorra. The jounin was about to ask one of the people standing nearby if they knew who he was when the man wandered off and disappeared from view.

Seeing as he'd lost sight of the man, Kakashi spared a moment in his reconnaissance to check on Kotorra. She'd already managed to clean out the three men at her table and was playing with her chips, waiting for the new players to take their seats. The jounin stifled a surprised shout. "_What __the __hell? __Five __hundred__ and__ seventy __thousand__ ryo!_" The teenage gambler noticed his look of consternation and grinned maliciously. He looked away and shuddered. "_I'm __never__ playing __cards__ with__ that__ girl_." he suddenly blanched. "_And__ she __was__ beaten__ by __**Naruto**?_" Her victory hadn't gone unnoticed; there were quite a few patrons who were giving her appraising looks. One was an older woman with an utterly outlandish hairstyle sitting near the bar behind Kotorra's table who was giving her a particularly evil glare. She seemed to make up her mind about something when she stood up and walked determinately to stand across from where the younger woman was sitting.

"I see you are quite the lucky girl." sneered the woman, giving Kotorra a derisive snort. "But I must say I find your lack of grace rather appalling. I mean, really, fondling your winnings is _so_ unbecoming." Kotorra delicately raised an eyebrow at her.

"As there is no one else here, and the croupier is male, I presume you are speaking to me. Since I'm not the one who flounced over here and chose to insult a stranger, it seems to me that the one who lacks grace is you."

"Why you insolent brat! Do you know who I am?"

"No, and I don't much care either. If you're not going to gamble would you mind going elsewhere?" The older woman gave her an icy glare and turned around and left in a huff. "Sheesh...what's her problem anyway."

"Oh don't mind her." the croupier said. "That's Lady Ise, and she's just jealous that you're getting so much attention. It's rare to see someone win so much money at once. Are you some kind of gambling prodigy?"

"Not at all. Those three just weren't very good at this game. Now then, where can I find some more victi...I mean opponents?"


	17. Conversations among Cacti

You do _not_ want to know how many times this chapter was re-written. I still think this chapter is sloppy but I'm determined not to make this story into a deadfic if I can help it. Sloppy update no update.

Killing Time  
Chapter Sixteen: Conversations among Cacti  
By Kaori

Gina supposed that she shouldn't have been too surprised that Gaara was fond of cactuses. Most people find cacti to be prickly and unapproachable and, prior to Naruto's therapy jutsu, so was Gaara. However, a cactus is also hardy and easy to care for, traits that people who got to know the youngest Sabaku sibling would learn he shared.

Presently, both Gaara and Gina were outside on the southern side of the house where the former was dutifully inspecting his cacti (two hedgehog cactuses, a jumping cholla, and a pitaya ) for mealy bugs.

"You know, Naruto likes to garden. Before he left he was growing some very nice ferns up on our roof garden." Gina said, then she frowned. "I sure hope Kotorra remembers to water them, or at least set up a watering system. You wouldn't have to worry about that I guess, cactuses don't tend to need a whole lot of water, right?"

"Aah." nodded Gaara. "Do you like plants?"

"Yeah, although I'm not particularly good at growing them. I did learn a little bit gardening and floriography from my grandmother." she wrinkled her nose. "She liked to grow _obscene_ gardens."

"Obscene?"

"Yeah, the last time I visited she had red poppies, orange lilies, and coriander growing around a basswood tree in the middle of her front yard."

"I don't understand. How is that obscene?"

Gina made a face and explained the meaning behind each of those plants (1) causing Gaara to turn as red as his hair. "Yeah, my grandma was a dirty old woman. She got away with her garden because no one understood what she was _really_ doing." she smiled at him. The younger teenager seemed to regain a bit of his composure.

"Do cactus flowers have a meaning?" he asked.

"Endurance...and maternal love." Gaara got a strange look on his face and then hurriedly turned back to fussing over his cacti. Gina, sensing that something about her statement had bothered him, opted not to press the issue and changed the subject.

"Oh, I've been meaning to ask you guys this. Since you don't have a kage at the moment who's running the village?"

"Currently the Baki and the rest of the council are taking care of the daily affairs until they and the Daimyo decide who will be kazekage. It may take some time seeing that there are very few eligible candidates and not many people actually want the position." Gina had to think about that for a minute.

"I know it's a huge responsibility to take on..." she said slowly. "raising and ensuring the safety of a village full of trained spies and assassins is undoubtedly difficult. But I'm sure somebody would be willing to take on that burden."

"What you have said is true, however there aren't that many people willing to die trying to doing that."

"Huh?"

"You see, every Kazekage so far has been assassinated. (2)" Gina's eyes widened.

"Well, that certainly would make _me_ think twice about taking that position..." she muttered. "Enough about that for now, it's lunchtime, we're having shish kabobs, and life is good."

* * *

_Another short chapter. This is also the last Suna chapter for a while_.

1) Red poppies signify pleasure, orange lilies desire or passion, coriander means lust, and a basswood tree produces lime flowers which stands for fornication. Yeah, you know what _she_ wanted.

2) I'm not certain about the First and Second Kazekage, but the Third was assassinated by Sasori, the Fourth by Orochimaru, and we all know what happened to Gaara after the timeskip. Gaara is the only one that got better. Seriously, teaching the history of the kages in Suna would involve someone with a kunai and a voodoo doll going: Shodai [stab] DEAD! Nidaime [stab] DEAD! Sandaime [stab] DEAD! Yondaime [stab] DEAD! Godaime [elaborate ritual] DE...no wait...he's fine now. Nevermind.


	18. At the Outpost

Chiz chiz chiz.

Killing Time  
Chapter Seventeen: At the Outpost  
By Kaori

Due to being delayed by Kabuto they did not actually reach the outpost by nightfall; spending the night there was their best option as running around in the dark knowing there are missing-nin on the prowl is not merely foolish but outright suicidal. Jiraiya informed the teenagers that they would be leaving first thing in the morning so it was in their best interest to get some sleep.

Sadly, when you've been more or less running for your life all day the last thing on your mind is sleeping.

"Bradley? Are you awake?" Naruto whispered, not wanting to awaken Jiraiya.

"Yeah, what is it Naruto?" yawned the older young man. He was tired but sleep just wouldn't come easy to him. He just couldn't shake the nagging feeling that he had missed something important. After Kabuto had left there had been a distinct air of something lurking about in the area. He didn't see it, but he could smell and _feel_ it. It was like a concentrated, palpable stench of wrongness; even that didn't adequately describe whatever it was that had turned him into an insomniac tonight. "Can't sleep?"

"No." grumbled the blonde, rolling over in his bedroll to face his dark-skinned friend. "What do you think Kabuto was doing out there?" Ah, so he wasn't the only one ruminating on that. Good.

"I should be asking you that. After all, I've only met the guy once. This is what, the third time you're run into him? You're in a better position than me to determine what he was after."

"Mmmngh. Obviously he was up to nothin' good, probably running errands for that creep Orochimaru." At the sound of the hated sennin's name Bradley let out a low growl. Neither of his experiences with the snake summoner were fond memories and he'd like nothing better than to tear out his lily-white throat. "Hey, you can track people by scent, right? Do you think you could find Kabuto?"

"Why?" Bradley rolled over so he could look at the blonde. "I seriously doubt Jiraiya is going to let you go chasing after him, but if for some strange reason he went insane or you somehow managed to evade the old guy, what do you intend to do if you find him?"

"I'm gonna make him tell me where Orochimaru is, and when I get there I'll kill the freak so Sasuke'll finally be safe." growled Naruto. Bradley sighed, he figured it would be something like that.

"Naruto," he said patiently. "you were there when we went to retrieve Tsunade. Do you honestly think you can take down a man who, without the use of his arms, was able to hold off both Tsunade _and_ Jiraiya?"

"I don't care, that guy has got to be stopped!" the blonde seethed.

"Hmph. Well, in answer to your original question I can, but I'm not going to." Naruto made to protest but Bradley cut him off. "Look, Sasuke's my friend too but I'm not doing him or you any favours encouraging suicidal bravado. Orochimaru is too strong for you to try to take on right now. You know it, I know it. Not to mention you have problems of your own to deal with; Akatsuki ringing any bells?"

"Yeah, but..."

"No. Listen Naruto, if you want to be Hokage then you've got to learn that there are times when the best course of action is not to take any action. I can't believe I'm telling this to the guy who is always going on about how he's going to protect his precious people, but you can't protect anyone if you're dead."

The blonde gave a frustrated grunt. Bradley was right of course but it was still hard to accept it.

"You have all the power you need to protect everyone." Jiraiya suddenly chimed in from his bedroll. Both boys started; they had not realized the older man had been awake. "The question is, do you have the determination to learn how to properly harness it?"

"I don't want to rely on the fox." Naruto said adamantly.

"I wasn't talking about just the Kyuubi, brat. Right now you have almost the same chakra capacity as me, and a spark of creativity that could be lethal if you put your mind to it. You don't have to rely on the Kyuubi's power, but it is an advantage. A good ninja knows how to use everything at his disposal to accomplish the mission. It can only work to your benefit to learn how to use the Kyuubi's chakra without losing yourself to it. I can teach you how."

"You can?"

"Mm, but are you willing to do what it takes? I won't lie to you. It's going to be hard and it's most likely going to be painful. The benefits do outweigh the risk, though. If you're able to master the Kyuubi's chakra, you won't have to worry about it hurting anyone you care about and you can use it to defend yourself and them. It's up to you though."

Naruto was quiet for a long while and it seemed that he would not answer, but then he gave a determined grunt. "If that's what it's gonna take then alright. But you'd better not be jerking me around ero-sennin."

"No worries there brat." Jiraiya turned to Bradley. "What about you, kid? All this isn't really your problem and what I have in mind for Naruto is going to be really dangerous. You don't have to get involved if you don't want to." Bradley cut him off.

"Like it or not Jiraiya I'm already involved. I made a promise to watch out for Naruto and I intend to keep it."

"You could get killed."

"That will be a factor whether I decide to help or not." the younger man pointed out. "However, I have decided that if it ever came down to it, getting myself killed helping someone else is less humiliating than being hunted down like a rabid dog."

"Very well. Now both of you shut up and go to sleep, we're leaving right after breakfast."


	19. They See Me Rollin', They Hatin'

Killing Time  
Chapter Eighteen: They See Me Rollin', They Hatin'  
By Kaori

She collapsed on her bed completely exhausted and very much aware that she would not be getting much sleep as it was already well past four in the morning. They had been to half the casinos in town following details from half-heard conversations and rumours from random casino workers. A knock on her door interrupted any thought of just passing out right there. "Come in." Kotorra loudly grumbled. Unsurprisingly it was Kakashi. "You need something?"

"Ah. I wanted to know if any of the people you were gambling with said anything that might help us out." Kakashi shrugged. Kotorra shook her head.

"Gamblers aren't particularly chatty when they're not playing with people they already know. The most conversation I had was to trade insults with Lady Ise and ask the croupier who she was. Other than that, I've got nothing."

"I see...and you didn't see anything out of the ordinary?" asked the jounin. Kotorra frowned. Whenever that question is asked it usually meant either something suspicious had happened that she hadn't noticed or the person asking felt you were withholding information for reasons unknown. She suspected it was the former.

"You did?"

"There was a young man watching all the gamblers; he seemed to be very interested in you in particular."

"Considering the people I played against were pretty sucky I probably looked like an expert in comparison."

Kakashi shrugged at that. The motives of the strange man would remain unknown for the time being. "At any rate, given your performance tonight getting you into the high rollers area shouldn't be a problem. Maybe the tongues in there will be a little looser." It was Kotorra's turn to shrug.

"If nothing else, it'll be good seed money for the tournament." she let out a huge yawn. "Is that all? I can barely keep my eyes open."

"Ah, sorry. I'll take me leave now. Good night, Kotorra."

"Good night, Kakashi."

Thankfully for Kotorra no one expected her to be awake before noon after literally being up all night. Sakura had been left to guard her room, mainly to keep up appearances as no one really expected her to be attacked. Kakashi and Sasuke took the opportunity to skulk around town gathering information in the seedier parts of town; and given how seedy the town already is, that spoke volumes about why Sakura had been left behind this time.

Kotorra woke up feeling like death warmed over. It seemed that she hadn't really fallen asleep, but passed out from exhaustion. Her body felt weighed down and it was a chore just to sit up. She stretched her arms over her head in an attempt to get rid of the muzzy feeling she had all over. Blearily she scanned the room and spotted Sakura reading a book in the corner. "Hey Sakura, what time is it?" she asked, glancing out the window; the sun was still somewhat high in the sky. Sakura put the book down.

"It's after three in the afternoon. Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun went into town to see if they could learn anything." the younger girl seemed perturbed and it wasn't particularly hard to guess why.

"Hey, don't make such a sour face. I'm sure leaving you behind to watch out for me was more a tactical decision than a personal one." Kotorra stretched one more time. "I'm going to take a bath. I slept in my clothes and I probably still reek of cigar smoke and cheap perfume. " she threw the sheets off with a flourish that belied her sleepiness, and rolled out of the bed.

"Ah, I'll come with you! I'm supposed to be your bodyguard after all."

Once Kotorra had bathed and dressed the two headed into town at the older girl's insistence; apparently some sort of inspiration hit her while she was in the bath and she was determined to play it out. They wove their way through the marketplace and skirted around the ruins of the castle to arrive finally in the restaurant quarter. Kotorra stood still for a few minutes, considering her options before picking a very expensive looking place.

"May I help you?" sniffed the maître d', eyeing the girls with a raised eyebrow. Kotorra regarded the man with a bored expression before reaching into her purse and taking out ten gold coins.

"A table that overlooks the town and bring me your finest matcha would be a nice start." she said, shooting him a meaningful look. Immediately upon glancing the coins the man's whole demeanour changed and he was practically tripping over himself to accommodate Kotorra and Sakura. Very quickly he located the desired table and continued to bow and scrape once the coins were pressed into his hand, going so far as to personally get the tea while the girls perused the menu.

"That was a lot of money you gave him." Sakura stated. "And this place is really expensive, are you sure this is alright?"

"Oh the cost will be worth it I assure you." Kotorra replied, smiling enigmatically. "Feel free to order whatever you like and as much as you like. And don't give me any of that "I'm on a diet" crap."

"O..okay..." It seemed the older girl was in one of her strange moods. Sometimes the pink-haired kunoichi couldn't figure the older girl out. Some days, Kotorra would act like a mother hen; fussing over Sasuke and Naruto as if she'd been taking care of them for years. Other times she was this wise, mysterious mercenary; knowing much more than she should and seeming far older than she was. Then there would be times when she was as irritating as Naruto and goofy as Kakashi. It was very unnerving how she could swing between all three in less than five minutes.

While Sakura contemplated her companion, Kotorra was surveying the landscape. The first time she'd arrived here there was a festival going on. While it was no less busy now, the atmosphere was less celebratory and more relaxed. From where she sat she could easily pick out the castle ruins and using that as a marker, traced the route she had taken with her friends and Jiraiya while they had been on the search for Tsunade. "_All right, Morimoto's house is over there. He has four casinos, the two that were attacked were Seiryu over there, and Suzaku which is over there. The other two casinos haven't been touched even though they've had plenty of time to do so. Why? What's so special about those two casinos? Hmm...Suzaku and Seiryu are built at odd angles from each other, but Genbu and Byakko are only separated by a canal..._"

"Enjoying the view?" an oily voice inquired. Kotorra turned slowly to see a balding, heavy set man dressed in a very expensive, yet ill-chosen, blue silk suit. Rather than flatter, it made him resemble an overstuffed armchair. His eyes kept roving over her, and she had to suppress a full-body shudder when he licked his lips appreciatively."Forgive me for intruding but, I rarely see anyone with your striking pigmentation outside of Kaminari no Kuni. Your skin, it's like an exquisite milk chocolate." He licked his lips.

"_Rich, overweight, and into young women. This is going to be as fun as pulling teeth. _" she thought. Aloud she said. "I'm afraid I am unfamiliar with that country as I hail from a land far across the ocean. I currently reside in Hi no Kuni, mister..."

"Oh, where are my manners." he gave a sweeping boy. Both girls rolled their eyes. "My name is Katoki Gorou, I am the owner of the Sanhashi hotel."

"Kotorra Lewis, proprietor and head chef of Kejibi Mochikaeri."

"Oh? You seem rather young to have your own restaurant, and a chef too? Are you perhaps, checking out would-be competitors or looking for a new spot to expand your business?"

"Nothing quite so grand as that. I'm only in town for the card tournament." at the mention of the event the man's eyes sharpened.

"You are competing in it?"

"Yes. Morimoto-san invited a mutual friend of ours who, sadly, was not able to attend. I thought it a shame to let the invitation go to waste."

"A word of advice, don't go. I don't know if you've heard, but Morimoto and his businesses have been the target of several attacks. Personally I don't have anything against the man, but I would hate for anything to happen to such a lovely young entrepreneur such as yourself."

"Lewis-dono, your tea." the sycophantic maître d' chose that moment to reappear. Kotorra spared him an urbane expression and gestured for him to serve it.

"Would you care for some tea Katoki-san? And do tell me more about these incidents..."

An hour later, Sakura and Kotorra left the restaurant, the latter muttering about how she needed to take another bath.

"Why did you even invite him to sit with us if you thought he was so terrible?" Sakura asked, noting the disgusted way the other girl kept rubbing her arms where Katoki had touched her.

"Information." replied the wild card. "I had only picked that restaurant to get a good look at the town's layout, but Katoki coming over and being willing to gossip was pure luck." she shuddered again. "Ugh...I can still feel his nasty paws on me..."

Sakura gave her a sympathetic smile, she wasn't sure she would have been able to endure the older man running his hands over her arms and shoulders like that, but somehow the other girl was able to manage. "So are we going back to the hotel now?"

"As much as I'd like to, no. We're going to visit Morimoto-san."

"Why?"

"I'm curious." was the enigmatic reply. Sakura huffed, annoyed.

Morimoto Yusuke was having lunch in his garden when the teenagers arrived. He greeted them warmly and invited them to join him but they declined as they had already eaten. Kotorra then explained the reason for their visit.

"Is there anything special about the Byakko and Genbu casinos?" she asked. "Suzaku and Seiryu were attecked and so was your house, but so far the culprits have left those two buildings alone."

"No," Morimoto frowned. "I can't really think of a reason. From what I understand, my father had built the Suzaku first, then Seiryu but he'd purchased the Byakko and Genbu from their previous owners."

"They were casinos before?"

"No, Genbu was a bank, and Byakko was storehouse for the pottery factory that used to be next to it."

"Hmm..."

"What are you thinking?" Sakura asked. She still had no idea why any of this mattered as the other girl hadn't explained herself and trying to figure it out was making Sakura's head hurt.

"I'm thinking we need to talk to Kakashi. For now, let's go back to the hotel."

"Then will you explain yourself?"

"Maybe."

"Mnnngggghh!"

* * *

_...aaand I'm going to leave off there for now. I'm sorry this chapter took so long; I was lacking in inspiration for quite a while and I had to just step away from writing and do something else to recharge my creative batteries. _


	20. Up All Night Again

Killing Time  
Chapter Nineteen: Up All Night Again  
By Kaori

Sasuke decided that he was ill suited for these types of missions. He was quite aware that being a ninja wasn't all about grand battles against strong opponents but he was discovering more and more that he had little patience for glorified police work. The irony of this had not escaped him either. His father had been very proud of his position as Chief of the Konoha Police Force, charged with the protection of the village from civilian and shinobi alike. Sasuke had no taste for it.

Still, he was here to do a job and he was going to do it. Naruto would never let him hear the end of it if he somehow managed to fail such an easy mission. He smirked. If the blonde loudmouth were here he'd be complaining about how bored he was or picking a fight with him. If nothing else it would be more interesting than following behind Kakashi listening to gossip. Although, that story about a circular patch of grass outside of town that nothing grows on did catch his attention. He'd probably ask Kotorra what she knew about it when they went back to the hotel.

Kakashi noticed Sasuke's irritation and inwardly sighed. While it was true that the boy was dutifully eavesdropping on the gossipers he wasn't truly listening. If asked Sasuke could probably recall and summarize each conversation. Still, there was no doubt in the jounin's mind that had he brought Sakura with him (and gotten her focused on the task at hand) she'd do a much better job of picking up the subtleties of what wasn't being said; who had a deep-seated dislike for Morimoto-san and might be responsible for the recent trouble he's been having.

So far he'd learned a few interesting things. A group of suspicious individuals had entered the town, one of which fit the description of the man he had seen watching Kotorra in the casino. There were six of them in total and they were staying at the Tokuro Hotel. Said hotel also houses Casino Midoriko and is owned by one of the men who would greatly profit from his client's troubles. It looked like their first stop tonight would be Casino Midoriko.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked, as he and Kakashi entered the room only to find both girls sitting on the floor in the full lotus position with their eyes closed.

"Meditating on the profound mysteries of the universe." Kotorra intoned. "Opening our minds to the cosmic influences that bind everyday life and allowing them to provide us with wisdom. All things become clear, and all questions can be answered. One truth becomes two. Two truths become four. Truths upon truths, layers unto layers. At this very moment I am being filled with the chi of the cosmos."

"Bullshit."

"You doubt me?" Kotorra challenged, opening one eye to regard him. She made a sharp motion with her hand and the next thing Sasuke knew he was surrounded in white. "Behold! The universe has given you sheet!"

"Get this thing off of me!" apparently the girls had gone the extra mile as the offending item of linen was securely pinned to the floor with kunai.

Once they'd extracted the Uchiha from his cotton prison, Kakashi filled them in on what they had learned and where they'd be going tonight. Following that, Kotorra shared what she and Sakura had been up to that afternoon.

"And why is that significant?" Sasuke asked, confused.

"I've been trying to get her to explain that myself." groused Sakura.

"All right, I think I've kept Sakura in suspense long enough." Kotorra said. "Pay attention because I'm only going through this once. Morimoto-san's casinos are Suzaku, Byakko, Genbu, and Seiryu. Genbu and Byakko casinos weren't attacked and both of those buildings were just upgraded from their previous functions so we can ignore them. However, the buildings that were where the Seiryu and Suzaku are had been demolished so why bother attacking them unless..." Silence. She gave an exasperated huff."_Unless_ whatever used to be there wasn't completely gone!"

"That's quite a leap in logic there." Kakashi pointed out. "What makes you think that?"

"The fact that this town used to have a castle built on top of a large, siege-warfare friendly hill. I find it very difficult to believe that anyone would do such a tactically ridiculous thing unless they were certain that the enemy could not starve them to death by surrounding the castle."

"You think there was another way into it from underneath one of Morimoto's casinos."

"But the castle is in ruins now. Why would they still want to find a secret way in?" Sakura asked.

"The main structure of the castle is gone, but not the basement." Sasuke mused. "What if whatever it is that was in there was kept in the basement level? They can't just waltz into the place and start poking around, and they definitely wouldn't be able to take anything out unless there was a way they could do so without being seen."

"Exactly! Very good Asshat!" beamed Kotorra. Sasuke threw a cushion at her and it smacked her in the face. The older girl picked it up and whapped Sakura with it started an impromptu pillow fight.

"I still feel it's a stretch." hummed Kakashi, watching the teenagers go at it in amusement. "The theory does hold some merit though. We'll have to see if there are any rumours about secret tunnels into the castle. Anyway, if you three are done playing around we should go get some dinner before we head to the casino."

Ten o' clock pm found Team Kakashi and Kotorra strolling into Casino Midoriko like they owned the place. Kakashi and Sasuke looked especially handsome in dark red suits with black ties and highly polished shoes. Sakura was decked out in a red and white, short-sleeved cheongsam and black matching red ankle boots; a gold cuff bracelet with an embedded ruby adorned her left hand and her hair was kept back with a red headband. Kotorra herself was wearing a black tunic with long kimono sleeves and purple trimming, matching wide-legged flowing pants and sandals; silver hoop earrings and a matching necklace completed the ensemble, while her hair was pulled back into a bun. There were quite a few appraising looks tossed in their direction but they paid them little attention, striding purposefully towards the high rollers' area. Predictably they were stopped at the door.

"Woah there young lady, you can't just walk in here." said the security guard. Kotorra fixed him with a blank stare.

"This is the high rollers' room, right?" she inquired shortly.

"Yes, but I can't just let you in there. I don't know what you were told, but there's a hundred thousand ryo minimum on the tables in here."

"So little? How boring..." drawled the wild card, garnering a surprised look from the security guard. Apparently that wasn't the reaction he had been expecting. "Maybe it's better if I took my business elsewhere..."she made as if to security guard seemed to panic, and he jumped when a hand was suddenly placed on his shoulder. Standing behind him was a very well-dressed man.

"Umishiro-san!" apparently this man was someone important.

" Saito, let them in." Umishiro ordered. "I apologize for the trouble miss. Saito-san here will show you and your entourage in." Kotorra allowed a triumphant smirk to slide across her features as the security guard tripped over himself to escort them to the cash cage to get chips. Just to make the man sweat some more, she got three hundred thousand ryo in chips then asked to be shown to a good table.

"You!" a demanding voice barked from her left. Kotorra knew she should just ignore it but looked anyway. Inwardly she groaned; as she thought, it was Lady Ise.

Unfortunately for the black-clad young woman, Lady Ise's table was the only one with a seat available and thus she was pit against the abrasive woman. The only good thing about this was that there were four other players at the table who weren't determined to pick a fight.

Kakashi was taken aback that one of the players at Kotorra's table was the same young man who had been observing her the previous night. He was somewhat baffled by the rather rude woman who had all but demanded Kotorra play at her table; not that there was any other choice. Then it all made sense when one of the other players addressed her as "Lady Ise". Ah, this was the woman Kotorra had mentioned. This ought to be interesting.

A few hands were played and through conversation the identities of the other players were revealed. The only one Kakashi was interested in was the young man from the previous night, Hijikata Rouen. The three others, Tsukishima Jiro, Watanabe En, and Doro Iori were only in his periphery at the moment.

_Feh, this is a chronic hand_. Kotorra thought to herself, impassively eyeing her pair of twos. _Best to fold this time. I've won the last two rounds so I can afford to take a loss right now._ "I'll fold."

"Oh, luck running out so soon?" Lady Ise mocked. Kotorra was expecting this and dutifully ignored her. "I guess you're not such a gambling prodigy when it comes to your betters."

"I hardly think you're in a position to talk Lady Ise." Rouen said blandly. "You are a nobility by circumstance, not birth."

"Bite your tongue! Who are you to talk about me that way?" the noble woman snapped.

"Lady Ise, please calm down!" cajoled Tsukishima, who was sitting at her left. "I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it!"

"Hmph. Whatever, I'll raise."

As the game wore on Kakashi was starting to notice little oddities about Rouen. During the bouts of conversation he never once mentioned anything about himself, but when the topic turned to others he was very quick to ask more questions or make factual comments. It was almost as if he was looking for something but didn't want anyone else to know. Kotorra seemed to have picked up on this as well...

"So, Hijikata-san, do you live here in town?" she asked, only sparing him a quick glance over her cards as if she only asked to keep up the idle conversation.

"No, I...came here for Morimoto-san's card tournament." Rouen replied haltingly.

_I see. Wonder if he's going to be in it. He plays okay even though he sucks at small talk._ "I'll take another card please...Hmm. I raise." she glanced at Rouen again. "Are you competing as well?"

"No, I came to observe." Sasuke and Sakura both frowned. Why did this guy seem uncomfortable? "If you're competing I wish you luck."

"Thank you." Kotorra smiled disarmingly.

"Is that why you have all these bodyguards?" Rouen ventured, less nervous now that he wasn't the subject of conversation. "Because you're in the tournament?"

"My friend insisted." _More or less. I'm just a distraction for the real mission after all_. "These days it's dangerous for a young woman to travel without protection. I am fortunate that I can afford to hire escorts."

"_Escorts_ indeed. Aren't you a little young for that sort of thing?" Lady Ise's voice was mocking, her eyes flicked over to each member of Team Kakashi in turn. "And you have such..._varied_ tastes." (1)

"Lady Ise, please don't project your personal preferences onto other people." Kotorra replied placidly, not even bothering to look at her. Lady Ise's indignant squawk could barely be heard over the roar of laughter from the rest of the table.

* * *

_This chapter was hard to write because I actually didn't have any real idea why Morimoto's casinos would be attacked. However, a conversation about the mythical secret passages in the caves in the area I live in that supposedly connect to Government House (to date no one has tried to find out if this is true as far as I'm aware), and it sort of wrote itself. After all, it seems no matter what country it is castles in stories have treasures hidden in them. Looking at a picture of Tanzaku-Gai's castle and I noticed that it is situated in a manner that, if the town below was overrun, made it ripe for a battle of attrition._

_Truthfully I'm not fully sold on this idea and I could re-write this part of the arc as I also got the idea for a backup story. If you guys like it as is I'll stick with it and use the back-up plot later on, it's up to you._

_Also, you may have noticed that I've switched to using and with italicized text in between to donate internal speech. This is only to make it clear that the character is only talking to themselves and not silently communicating with someone._

1) Just in case you didn't get it, Lady Ise is not so subtly implying that Kotorra hired Kakashi and company as hookers and is only calling them bodyguards as a euphemism.


	21. Games the Greedy Play

To OrionRedde: ALL OF THE HOMO! But seriously, between you, katsekala, and katdemon1895 I am feeling quite a bit of Internet love. I think if it wasn't for reviewers like you guys I would have given up on this story a while ago.

I also keep writing this to spite the people who never made it past the first few chapters of Where the Hell are We Now! because it was mostly dialogue; I only indulged in scenery porn a few times, and mild costume porn in the last chapter. Seriously, if you want more of that sort of thing go read a Jules Verne novel or something.

Killing Time  
Chapter Twenty: Games the Greedy Play  
By Kaori

The night of the tournament came about and the turnout was very good despite all the trouble Morimoto was having. The man himself, despite his earlier determination, was noticeably nervous. Then again, it would be suspicious if he wasn't; he had only recently started running his father's casinos and has had his life threatened and businesses vandalized for no discernible reason. The fact that he was willing to put himself in harm's way just to find out who was attacking him earned him some points for bravery, but not a lot for self-preservation. He could have just as easily asked Kakashi to impersonate him until the end of the tournament. No, the man was determined to see this thing through himself and since he is the client what he says goes.

Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke wandered the tournament area, making certain to stay within fifteen feet of Kotorra and by extension Morimoto. The young casino tycoon had arranged it so that the mercenary cum restaurateur was always seated near the table he was overseeing the tournament from, and he himself never moved too far away from it.

"That does it, I fold." the man sitting next to her grunted in exasperation. Kotorra kept her gaze fixed on her own cards trying to determine whether or not it would be worth bluffing her way through this round. Truthfully she'd won more than enough money to cover Team 7's pay for this mission over the course of her stay in the city, but she was having far too much fun to stop and there really wasn't any reason to. After all, she'd made it to the finals and she was determined to win.

There were four other players at her table; no one she'd met prior to the event. Any acquaintances she'd made during her casino jaunts had already been eliminated by herself or one of the other finalists and had retired to another part of the compound to enjoy refreshments. She smirked at the memory of serving Lady Ise a humiliating defeat with naught but a pair of fours. Now she was making the increasingly agitated-looking men at her table nervous, as she casually raised the stakes to five million ryou. At this point in the round the other players had two options: fold or call. Only the somewhat plump man sitting across from her still had enough chips in his possession to call, the other three would be forced to fold. She could practically taste victory...

...and then the room exploded.

"...just sold it to me none of this would be happening." A familiar voice filtered in to her slowly awakening mind. This wasn't the first explosion she'd ever been in. School and Network-run lab accidents had gotten her somewhat accustomed to them, but this was the first one she hadn't seen coming so she had been unable to react.

"You only have yourself to blame for your fate, Morimoto." Where the hell had she heard that voice before? She tried to move but hands were roughly gripping her and then she was placed in a headlock. Come to think of it, she wasn't actually supporting her own weight, whoever was restraining her had actually been holding her up. Mind now starting to function, Kotorra opened her eyes and struggled causing whoever had her pinned against them to tighten their grip.

"Stay still." a smooth voice behind her commanded calmly. She stiffened. She recognized that voice.

"Rouen." she muttered.

"Lewis-san." Rouen acknowledged. She tried to turn her head to glare at him, but he tightened his grip again in warning. "Please refrain from making unnecessary movements. I am under orders not to harm you unless forced, and I'd rather you didn't force me."

Instead of regaling him with threats she wasn't sure she'd be capable of carrying out, she relaxed and took stock of the situation.

They were no longer at Morimoto's estate. At first she thought they had been taken to a cave, but the support beams showed otherwise; it was a very large basement. Morimoto was looking very dishevelled; clothes torn in some places, a black eye, and missing a zori. He was being restrained by two men and being threatened by a very familiar third who was gesticulating at the ornate door behind him while wearing an ill-fitting dark green suit; Katoki Gorou. Dark brown eyes glared at Morimoto and occasionally flicked hungrily towards the door behind him.

The door itself surprised Kotorra as it appeared to be made out of solid iron and full of intricate metal-work. It was the type of door that you'd imagine would be guarded by knights in full armour and lead to the treasure room of a palace. At the end of a dingy tunnel it gave the impression that there was something on the other side that the owner did not want you to get. The metalwork on the door was a work of art in and of itself, seeming to tell the story of a battle.

At the top, two armies faced each other on the battlefield. The next scene showed the army on the right being routed by the one on the opposing side and then below this, what appeared to be a giant in armour turns the tide of battle. The picture at the very bottom of the door shows the army on the right standing with the giant raising their weapons in celebration of their victory. Her scrutiny was suddenly interrupted when Gorou cupped her chin in his hand, smiling sickly in her face.

"Marvellous, isn't it?" he purred. "Did you ever think such a wonder was hidden underneath a gaudy casino?"

"Under the casino?" Kotorra parroted, her surprise not feigned in the slightest. It seemed her suspicions were slightly off.

"Yes. " he released his hold on her. "In the old days this was a storeroom for the castle. In the event of a siege the Lord's family would evacuate here and wait out the attack. That door depicts the last such attack and the outcome..."

Gorou stated that he'd overheard some government officials discussing the storerooms when the castle was destroyed. They were trying to estimate how much it would cost to rebuild the castle, and one of them mentioned the secret storerooms; the one where they were currently located in particular. This storeroom was different from the others because it was rumoured that stored in a sealed chamber was the thing that had kept the castle from being conquered; a living armour.

Of course, the official was admonished by his peers not to put stock in fanciful tales but he was adamant that there was more than a little truth to the tale. Gorou approached the official privately and learned that the man's grandfather was a retainer at the castle and had personally seen that armour in action. Curiosity getting the better of him, he decided he would investigate the public records and learn the locations of all the storerooms. He'd managed to find information on all of them except the one that supposedly held the sealed room so he paid another visit to the chatty official. He was very disappointed when no further information was forthcoming from that source; the man's grandfather had never revealed the room's location and would probably take that secret to his grave.

Gorou decided to test that hypothesis. He was right.

"Thankfully for me, the old fool didn't realize that his old compatriots weren't quite as loyal as he was. Finding them was slightly troublesome, but paying off the grandson for the information was a simple matter. Naturally I had him killed too; couldn't risk anyone else learning about it before I could get the armour would be highly inconvenient. Once I learned the location I thought it would be a simple matter of getting the owner to sell it to me..." his face turned nasty. "Little did I know it was owned by one of the most stubborn men in Tanzaku-Gai."

"Morimoto Masamichi." muttered Kotorra.

"Indeed. He needed to be eliminated, but it had to look natural; old men and minor government officials get mugged and killed all the time, but if someone popular and well-liked like Morimoto Masamichi were murdered too many people would ask questions. Paying-off one of the maids to slowly poison him was difficult and it took quite some time but it worked and no one suspected a thing." Gorou growled. "No one thought the old goat had an heir living abroad."

"So you sabotage his businesses in an effort to get him to sell them to you, and when that didn't work you made attempts on his life. You did all that terrible stuff for a suit of magic armour that may not even exist?" This whole affair was absurd and offensive to everything Kotorra had been taught. Sure she'd helped her master work some shady deals, but this was just out and out thuggish. If you couldn't use hard work, logic, and knowledge to get what you want then you moved on to something else. Killing everyone that stands in your way just reduces your pool of potential business partners and destabilizes the market and makes doing business more difficult. "And what's the idea kidnapping me? That makes even less sense!"

"I had Rouen find out about your little restaurant after our first meeting. Once I use the armour to take over this town, I shall have need of a personal chef. And when you're not cooking my meals..." he licked his lips. "I'm sure you could find other ways to entertain me."

"You're sick." Kotorra spat, starting to struggle but Rouen tightened his hold once again.

"Don't worry dear, I'm sure you'll learn to love me in time." he turned around and started walking towards the door. "But first, I have a town to conquer." he pulled a key out of his coat's breast pocket. "Amazing what a little bribery will get you. Now, my destiny awaits..."

"I'm afraid the only thing that's destined for you is prison."

"Who said that!" Gorou turned around. "Wha...what the hell!"

"You're late Kakashi." Kotorra grumbled. Kakashi was standing behind the Wild Card, Rouen slumped on the ground between them. Sakura was tending to Morimoto Yusuke, while Sasuke tied up the men who had been holding him hostage.

"Sorry, we had to dig our way out of a pile of rubble." stated the jounin.

"I won't let you stop me! Not when I'm this close!" shrieked Gorou wrenching the key and preparing to fling the door open. Fortunately Kakashi was much faster than the overweight man and managed to stop him.

"Sorry, but I can't let you do that." he grabbed Gorou and restrained him by his arms before proceeding to tie him up.

"Finally, it's over." Morimoto sighed.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI!" Sakura cried out, pointing toward the door. It was beginning to open. Gorou started laughing crazily. Every so slowly something emerged. Everyone tensed, uncertain as to what would happen next. When it stepped out only Kotorra didn't move, but she did look pained. That was no magical armour, human-shaped and made of a reddish metal though it was it was not just a piece of armour.

"Ly'bahr." she whispered. Apparently it had heard her because its head snapped towards her, seemingly in shock. Faster than even Kakashi could react it was standing in front of her with its hands on her shoulders.

"Kotorra!" Morimoto and the ninja cried out. She stayed still, keeping her eyes locked on the thing she never expected to see.

Her Network teachers had told her, what seemed to be an entire lifetime ago, about a race of cyborgs; the Ly'bahr. Powerful and intelligent, they had once all been beings of flesh and blood but had long found a way to transfer their consciousness into a metal shell. However, one day a Swarm Mother came and devoured every biological being on the planet, leaving behind only the metallic beings. Though now long-lived and with the proper maintenance immortal, the fact remained that they were a dying race as even they could not create new life. The one standing before her now, was most likely a Network agent like her and had survived the second coming of a Swarm Mother to Earth.

"_M'kuru tenwo alikett?_" it said, slowly. (Do you understand me?)

"_Zu. M'katcha Network oi'jem?" _she whispered. (Yes. Are you a Network agent?)

"_Zu_. _R'kuru hezzur waorat eeja. Viat, gelt quarad._" (Yes. I don't have much time left to me. Please, remove my core.)

"_Lem, r'eru m'intamat paazh..." _ (But, I have questions to ask about...)

_"M'tak l' arekt beraa guurad. M'eruxi l'uraqui, zu'e?_" (You will find the answers within my core. You were taught to read them, correct?)

"_Zu_..." (Yes...)

"_Tin viat..._" he gave a metallic sigh. "_R'katcha muru hegh._" (Then please... I wish to rest.)

Wordlessly, Kotorra reached around the Ly'bahr's neck as if to hug him, then deftly removed the plate behind its skull. Then, in a quick motion, she pulled out the three inch cylinder from its head. Like a marionette that suddenly had its strings cut, and to the alarm of everyone else in the room, the Ly'bahr fell to the floor in a heap of metal. The teenage deuce stood there for a few moments staring at the object in her hand, before shoving it in her pocket.

"I need you all to leave the basement." she said, not turning around.

"Not before I get some answers. What was that about!" Kakashi demanded. "How did you do that? _What_ did you do?"

"Kakashi," she turned her head slightly, giving everyone a good look at her violet-glowing eyes. "please."

"We're not leaving Kotorra." the jounin was adamant. An annoyed sigh was his only response and then Kotorra was surrounded by an intense violet light. When it subsided, the basement was now two distinct parts. Between where Kotorra stood going back towards the exit, things stayed as they were. Behind Kotorra, where the strange mechanical being and the door had been, was a sold metal wall. The girl's eyes were back to normal now. Gorou had apparently fainted from shock and the ninja were staring at her. She put her hands on her hips. "What did you just do?" She didn't answer him, just walked steadily and purposefully out of the basement.

* * *

_Wow, been a long time huh? Anyways, Happy New Year to one and all!_


	22. Bad Night and the Morning After

To Raizy1248: Well, I'm sorry about the long wait between updates but that's what happens when you write a story with no real plan as to how it's going to end. The randomness is because this is the Filler Arc and filler is usually random.

To katsekala: Kakashi got brainwashed last time this sort of situation occurred so he doesn't actually remember that little exchange. Rilarion isn't here to make him forget this time so we'll see how Kotorra handles this.

To IAmTheMilkman: I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint you.

To katdemon1895: Strictly speaking Ly'bahr aren't robots; it's more like how the people in Ghost in the Shell where people's brains are downloaded into fully prosthetic bodies. Robots are machines someone has to program; Ly'bahr used to be made of meat.

Killing Time

Chapter Twenty-One: Bad Night and the Morning After

By Kaori

She wasn't going to be able to talk her way out of this one. She had no energy to run, the device she could have used to escape with had been left back in Konoha, and she was surrounded by very determined ninja. Her only option for now was to endure the interrogation.

The sole saving grace was that Morimoto had been excluded from all of this; Kakashi's sharingan proved useful for making the man believe he'd passed out after the iron had door opened. Too bad she can't do the same to him. "_Damn Takisians are never around when you need them, and are a pain in the ass to deal with when you don't._" she thought bitterly.

"So," Kakashi drawled. "would you mind explaining what happened back there?"

"Yes I would mind very much actually." Kotorra said peevishly. "I'm tired and I do _not_ want to have this conversation with you."

"Unfortunately we _need_ to have this conversation. I have to make my report to the Hokage when we get back to Konoha and if there are any more things like that out there I need to know." She glared acidly at him.

"That thing seemed to know you." Sasuke jumped in, the glare shifting to him, but he ignored it. "How? From what we know it'd been locked away at least two decades, and you only arrived a little eight months ago."

"_He_ didn't know me. I recognized him for what he was."

"So that wasn't a living armour I take it." said Kakashi.

"No."

"Then what was it?"

"Stop referring to him like he was some sort of object!" snapped Kotorra, annoyed that her verbal cues had been ignoreed.

" I'm sorry." Kakashi held his hands up in a placating manner. After an uncomfortable pause he asked, "So how did you recognize him? Is he from your country?"

Kotorra chuckled humourlessly and shook her head. They were asking all the wrong questions. Good. "No he's not. We _are_ a part of the same organization. I've never actually met a Ly'bahr before, but my mentor told me there were maybe twenty of 'em working with us. You needn't worry about there being any others here. He was alone; you _never_ find a Ly'bahr alone." After all, they were in constant danger of critical malfunction so another had to be around to perform maintenance. The fact that he _had_ been found by himself meant that his partner had already died (if his partner had been an organic being) or ceased functioning.

"What were you two talking about?"

"It was actually more of an argument." Kotorra sighed, putting her hand in her pocket and squeezing the core within. "I was trying to get him to tell me what happened to our group. He was tired. Didn't want to go on anymore..." she closed her eyes. Kakashi's eyes softened while Sasuke and Sakura suddenly found the corners of the room to be incredibly fascinating."May I please go to sleep now?"

"Just one more question." Kakashi said. Kotorra sighed and waved a hand indicating for him to go ahead. "What was that you put in your pocket back in the basement?"

"His soul."

The ninja had left her alone after that, but as tired as she was she just could not seem to fall asleep. Frustrated, she got up out of bed and went to the window and let the cool night air wash over her face. Staring out at the moonless sky, Kotorra's thoughts drifted to her friends. She wanted nothing more than to have someone to rant to right now but doing so would lead to more questions she didn't want to answer.

While she'd told Kakashi that there wasn't another Ly'bahr out there, and she was fairly certain there wasn't, there could be...others. After all, Rillarian had said that _most_ of the non-humans had left the planet during the second Swarm Mother attack implying there were some who stayed. However, far too much time had passed for anyone, save non-organic races, to still be here. She scowled, glancing over at the drawer where she'd placed the Ly'bahr's core. "_After I'm done with Sasuke's request, you and I are going to have a little chat_." she thought.

In the morning the atmosphere was slightly strained as Kotorra was still cranky from the night's activities, Kakashi wanted more information, Sasuke and Sakura were caught in the middle, and Morimoto was completely oblivious as he was the only person in the room who didn't remember what happened after Gorou was caught.

However they had not gathered at the client's home to discuss last night, but rather to determine how Kotorra will receive her winnings. Since the tournament had been interrupted before its conclusion, Morimoto had decided that everyone would be given their winnings up to that point. This meant that the Grand Prize was off the table, but Kotorra's sizeable winnings still needed to be paid out.

"A lump sum payment would be too awkward to carry." Kakashi noted. "Not to mention we really don't want to have to deal with robbers on the way home."

"Indeed. How about we deposit it at the bank here and then have it transferred to Konoha via transfer?" suggested Morimoto.

"That's reasonable." Kotorra nodded.

"Then, shall we go there now?"

Once the business at the bank had been concluded, Team Kakashi and Kotorra checked out of the hotel. Morimoto saw them off.

"And this also settles Tsunade-sama's debt I take it." Kotorra inquired half-jokingly.

"Ah. I believe my life and livelihood adequately covers her indebtedness to me. Please send her my warmest regards when you return to Konoha."

"We will, Morimoto-dono." Kakashi said. "Thank you for your business and hospitality."

"My pleasure. Please, come and visit me anytime!"

_Well, with that adventure over what awaits Team Kakashi when they get home? That will have to wait as we're going to pay Naruto, Jiraiya, and Bradley a visit as they travel the Elemental Nations_.


End file.
